





















~~ 


i 








H V50GO 
/t/To 


FOREWORD 


This little volume is a continuation of ‘‘The 
Handbook of Modern Facts About Alcohol,” 
published in 1914 which contained the scien¬ 
tific background of some fifty posters then 
being used for educational work. 

The welcome in this and other countries 
given the data contained in the Handbook has 
encouraged the preparation of this second text, 
the illustrations of which cover a second series 
of posters published at intervals for further in¬ 
formation on salient points of the subject of 
the effects of alcoholic beverages. 

Scientific study of the alcohol question 
has advanced much in the past decade. There 
has been growing recognition of its essential 
and practical value to adequate understanding 
of the whole question and to methods of deal¬ 
ing with it. During this same decade there 
has been considerable extension of the move¬ 
ment in many countries for instruction of 
youth in these facts concerning the nature and 
effects of alcohol when used for beverage pur¬ 
poses. An attempt has been made in these 
pages, therefore, to bring out some of the 
newer important scientific evidence in its rela¬ 
tions to present-day human interests and prac¬ 
tical affairs. 



RAILROADS NEED 

SOBER EMPLOYES 




“Two Fingers of Red Liquor can 
Turn a Ten-Milfion-Dollar Safety 
Block Signal In to a Ten-Million 
Dollar Waste of Money." 

Series E. No. 51 

COPYRIGHTED 1917 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 

WESTERVILLE, OHIO 








51. RAILROADS NEED SOBER EMPLOYEES 

It was a railroad employer who made the answer 
quoted in the illustration when someone asked him 
why American railroads have the following rule: 

“The use of intoxicants by employees while on duty is prohibited. 
Their use (or their habitual use) or the frequenting of places where they 
are sold is sufficient cause for dismissal.” 

The answer quoted means, of course, that in the 
experience of the railroad the employe on railroad 
trains who takes even a small amount of alcoholic 
liquor may thereby become responsible for accident 
resulting in serious loss of property or life. 

One of the most serious railroad accidents which 
occurred in the United States in the decade before 
alcoholic drinks were strictly prohibited was due to 
the fact that an engineer who was not obviously in¬ 
toxicated when he started on the journey, but who 
had been drinking the night before, failed to see a 
danger signal. He turned the “safety-block signal 
into a waste of money.” The experiments of Schulz 1 
(No. 60) showed that, after taking alcohol in the form 
of haM a pint of beer or a wineglass and a half of Rhine 
wine or champagne, ability to distinguish shades of 
red and of green was decreased. Impairment was 
worse for red, the color of the danger signal, than for 
green. With both red and green, Schulz found that 
ability to distinguish shades was poorer after taking 
beer than after taking other kinds of alcoholic liq¬ 
uors, possibly, it was suggested, because of the hops 
in the beer. 

One experiment was made to ascertain whether 
as little as two-thirds of a tablespoonful of alcohol in 
the form of beer could impair ability to discern the 


color of signals appearing for only an instant. One 
hundred persons of various ages, professions, and of 
both sexes were tested. Fifty-six saw better or as 
well after taking the half pint of beer. Forty-four 
saw less well. There were 18 in whom the diminu¬ 
tion was marked. The experimenter repeated the 
tests with 13 of the 18 with the same results. His 
conclusion was that for a considerable number of peo¬ 
ple the absorption of even this small amount of beer 
brought about diminution of clearness of vision. 
This might easily be dangerous in the case of engin¬ 
eers, pilots, or chauffeurs who must often catch their 
signals through smoke, fog, rain, or snow, making 
sight difficult. The fact that not everybody so tested 
was similarly affected does not make less dangerous 
the activity of the 18 per cent who were affected. 

Railroad workers themselves have understood the 
value of total abstinence from alcoholic beverages. 
In several European countries there are total absti¬ 
nence societies composed wholly of railroad em¬ 
ployees. In the United States, the railroad engineers 
have a trade organization, the Brotherhood of Loco¬ 
motive Engineers. One of their strictest rules re¬ 
quires total abstinence at all times on the part of the 
members. The reason for the rule which was 
adopted many years ago is thus stated by the presi¬ 
dent of the Brotherhood, Warren S. Stone: 2 

“In these days of fast trains and heavy traffic, the locomotive en¬ 
gineer needs all the brains he has. He can not afford to have them 
muddled by drink.” 

Mr. Stone also said: 3 

“When you realize that on these fast trains the engineer must rec¬ 
ognize and correctly interpret three signals a minute on an average, 
each of which means the difference between safety and disaster, you can 
understand why every sense must be alert. We who have spent most of 
our lives on a locomotive know the infinitesimal fraction of a second of 
time that often means safety. Alcohol slows down the brain. Any 
member of the Brotherhood found guilty of violating the rule which 

4 


forbids the use of alcoholic liquors either while on duty or while off 
duty must be expelled, and any lodge of the Brotherhood failing to en¬ 
force this law must have its charter suspended by the head of the Na¬ 
tional Brotherhood. This law is rigidly enforced. The Brotherhood of 
Locomotive Engineers at its international convention in 1918 with 902 
voters present, by unanimous vote of all delegates declared in favor of 
national prohibition of the liquor traffic.” 

52. SMALL ACCIDENTS THAT MIGHT 
HAPPEN TO YOU 

Machinery involves more danger to the worker 
than old-time hand work because: (i) it operates 
faster with more power; (2) it brings large numbers 
of workers together who may cause injury to one 
another. 

Modern industry tries to prevent accidents by 
(1) safety devices; (2) teaching workers to be careful. 

Safe men as well as safe machinery are neces¬ 
sary. The most carefully protected machinery or 
the best rules for safety will not make the worker 
safe from accident unless he obeys the rules, thinks 
what he is doing, and uses his wits to avoid accident. 
The careless worker may injure not only himself, but 
also his fellow workers. 

Alcoholic drinks increase danger from accident. 
The alcohol in beer, wine and all alcoholic drinks 
makes one who uses them liable to accidents because: 
(1) it dulls mental keenness making him more care¬ 
less and likely to take dangerous chances he would 
not take if his mind were entirely clear; (2) it dulls 
alertness in recognizing a danger or its seriousness; 
(3) it makes one less able to decide quickly and cor¬ 
rectly the best action to take in an emergency; (4) 
it makes one less able to protect himself in dan¬ 
gerous places. 

One does not have to be drunk to have an acci¬ 
dent caused by alcohol. The mental confusion due 

5 



MALL ACCIDENTS 
THAT MIGHT 
HAPPEN TO 



Insured Drinkers 
Had Three and 
One-Fifth Times 
as many Small 
Accidents as the 
Average Insured 
Worker 



Eyes. Burned or Injured 
Face.Cut. Burned etc 


Wrist 


Bunied.sk 


Honda, cut 


Burned etc 


and Neck Wounds 


Shoulder Injured 
ms Cut Burned, etc 


Bruised. Sprained 
Burned etc. 


Knees Sprained 
Bruised etc. 


Feet and AnKUj 
Burned Cut etc. 


Sobriety Boosts Safety 

Statistics from Leipsic Sick Benefit Societies, 1910 
Drinkers were men 35-44 years old who showed signs of alcoholism. They had 
320 minor accidents per 1,000 insured men to 100 per 1,000 among average insured 
workers. Report of Societies, 1910 . 

Series E. No. 52 

COPYRIGHTED 1917 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 


THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 









to so-called moderate amounts of alcohol is a more 
frequent cause of accident than actual drunkenness; 
the visibly drunken man is neither able nor permitted 
to stay around dangerous machinery; he would not 
be allowed to drive an automobile. 

The Leipsic Sick Benefit Societies at one time 
made a careful investigation of the comparative sick¬ 
ness and accidents among “drinkers” and the average 
insured workmen. 12 

Persons classed as “drinkers” were men who had 
so poisoned themselves with the alcohol in the liq¬ 
uors they drank that the insurance doctors recorded 
them as chronic drinkers. 

These men had 31-5 times as many small acci¬ 
dents requiring less than four weeks for recovery as 
the average workman insured in the society in pro¬ 
portion to 1,000 men employed. 

53. BAD ACCIDENTS 

When the Leipsic Sick Benefit Societies 12 studied 
their records of drinkers (potators) as compared with 
the records of the average insured workman in the 
societies, it was found that in the case of accidents 
which might be called “bad” or serious accidents be¬ 
cause they required more than four weeks for recov¬ 
ery, the “drinkers” had, in proportion to their num¬ 
bers about three times as many accidents as the 
average. 

The use of alcoholic drinks is more dangerous to 
the worker today than it was a-hundred years ago 
because machinery has taken the place of much hand 
work. Delicate machinery of high power requires 
alertness, ability to act quickly and accurately in the 
regular operations of work and especially in emer¬ 
gencies. It makes the use of alcohol more risky to 

7 




AGAINST 

DRINKERS 


3 TO 1 


AGAINST 

DRINKERS 


DRINKERS had - 57 
AVERAGE Workers 19 

PER 1000 MEN 


Drink Trebled the Danger 

“The Fraction of a Second Makes AH the Difference” 


THE SOBERER THE SAFER 

Statistics from Leipsic Sick Benefit Societies, 1910. 

Drinkers were men 35-44 years old who showed signs of alcoholism. Had 300 
serious accidents per 1,000 insured where average insured workers had 100. 

Series E. No. 53 


COPYRIGHTED 1917 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 


THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 









the worker than when he was working by himself 
using hand tools. Machinery is saving man much 
hard work by his muscles, but it requires clear brains 
and steady nerve control, and alcohol impairs brain 
clearness and nerve control. 

‘‘Human life, costly machines, and continuous, 
efficient operation are too valuable to be placed at the 
mercy of minds befuddled by intoxicants. When we 
realize how deep-rooted these demands of modern 
industry are, it is then that we see the absolute im¬ 
possibility of mechanical advancement going hand in 
hand with alcoholism.’’ 7 

54. DRINKER’S WOUNDS HEAL MORE 
SLOWLY 

When the statistics of the Leipsic Sick Benefit 
Societies 12 were studied it was found that those who 
had been classed as “drinkers,” when injured required, 
on the average, a longer time for recovery than in¬ 
sured workers as a whole. The black bar in the illus¬ 
tration shows that among men in the prime of life, 
25-34 years of age, the relative amount of time lost by 
the drinkers was nearly three and three-fourths the 
amount of time lost by the average worker. 

Dr. W. J. Brickley, 13 when in charge of the Relief 
Station of the Boston (Mass.) City Hospital to which 
some 40,000 patients were brought annually, found 
that alcohol was responsible for many accidents, and 
that drinkers when injured required a longer time for 
recovery, and often made a poorer recovery. The 
drinker’s broken bone requires a longer time to knit 
because the body cells and tissues are impaired and 
only slowly “build the bridge” which “knits” the 
bones, or closes the wound. 

9 


Drinkers’ 
Wounds Heal 
More Slowly 

Average Insured Men’s Loss of Time by Wounds 



Average Insured Drinkers’ Loss of Time by Wounds 



The Men Were All 25-34 Years Old, Members of Leipsic Sick Benefit Societies. 

The Drinkers Were Chronic Users of Alcohol. 

Drinkers Lost 372 
Days for Every 100 
Days Lost by Aver¬ 
age Insured Men 

‘‘Alcohol Delays Healing 
and Repair in Accidents” 

—WILLIAM J. BRICKLEY, M.D., Boston Relief Station 

Statistics from Leipsic Sick Benefit Societies Report. 1910 
Series E. No. 54 

COPYRIGHTED 1917 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 

WESTERVILLE, OHIO 




55 . DRINKERS HAD MORE DEATHS FROM 

WOUNDS 

The figures are from those compiled by the Leip- 
sic Sick Benefit Societies. 12 Others have shown that 
the habitual heavy drinkers had more accidents than 
the average insured worker (Numbers 52 and 53); 
that they were slower in recovering from injury 
(Number 54). This illustration carries the story to 
the end showing that proportionately more deaths oc¬ 
curred among injured drinkers than among the in¬ 
sured workers in general. 

Dr. W. J. Brickley 13 (p. 13) thus explains the 
greater mortality among injured alcoholics: 

“When certain types of injury occur to a patient while under the 
influence of alcohol it is impossible to make a full diagnosis until the 
effect of the alcohol has passed off. With contusions of the head pro¬ 
ducing concussion or other intercranial injury, it is impossible in the 
presence of alcohol to localize or estimate the extent of the injury. Ab¬ 
dominal injuries or cases where poison has been taken are obscured by 
alcohol. . . . By obscuring the diagnosis alcohol defers proper treat¬ 
ment. This delay diminishes the chance for life when the real condi¬ 
tions are discovered. 

“By increasing the danger of infection, or by neglecting the begin¬ 
ning of the same, a condition is permitted to arise which aggravates the 
injury and lessens the chance for life. 

“Alcoholics do not bear surgical shock well. After amputation due 
to injury and severe lacerations a longer time is required to bring them 
into a condition where it is possible to operate. This necessitates de¬ 
ferring urgent operations. 

“Alcoholics do not live so long after being injured as abstainers do; 
which is another way of saying that their vitality is less.” 

Dr. Brickley thus summed up the points at which 
the drinker is at a disadvantage when injured: 

“Alcohol obscures the diagnosis. 

“Alcohol increases the chance of infection of a 
wound at the time of the accident. 

“Alcohol prevents adequate treatment. 

“Alcohol increases the danger of intercurrent 
complications. 

“Alcohol retards the process of repair. 

“Alcohol gives a poorer end or result. 

11 


DRINKERS HAD 

MORE DEATHS 
FROM WOUNDS 


Average Deaths Among All Insured Workmen-100 



Average Deaths Among Insured Drinkers-400 



The Men were 25-34 Year* Old, Members of Leipslc Sick Benefit Societies. 

The Drinkers were Chronic Users of Alcohol. 

Drink 

Increases Danger of Blood Poison. 
Makes Many Patients Unreason 
able About Treatment. 
Gives a Poorer End Result. 

Statistics from Report Leipsic Sick Benefit Societies, 1910 
Series E. No. 55 

COPYRIGHTED 1917 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 

WESTERVILLE, OHIO 








“Alcohol increases the mortality in accidents/’ 

Thus the drinking worker who belongs to a sick 
benefit society may cost the society and his more 
sober fellow workers a larger expense after an acci¬ 
dent. 

66 . SAFETY REQUIRES SOBRIETY 

The so-called “Workmen’s Compensation Laws” 
require that under certain conditions when an em¬ 
ployee is injured while at work, the employer must 
give some financial compensation for expenses in¬ 
volved in the injury, loss of time, or loss or impair¬ 
ment of further earning capacity. 

This led to installation of devices and arrange¬ 
ments for making conditions of work as safe as possi¬ 
ble, but always the human factor has to be taken into 
consideration. Sometimes the employer found that 
the courts did not make an exception in his favor when 
the injured worker was injured while under the influ¬ 
ence of alcoholic liquor. Hence the employer who 
had work involving danger began to give preference 
to employees who are sober and, therefore, less liable 
to accidents caused by carelessness, unsteadiness, or 
inattention resulting from the effects of alcohol on the 
brain and nervous system. 

One of the early narcotic effects of alcohol is the 
“blunting of self-criticism,” with a consequent “disre¬ 
gard of occurrences and conditions normally requir¬ 
ing caution of act and word, trespass of rules previ¬ 
ously respected.” 4 

Alcohol thus tends to make the worker careless. 
Experimenters in laboratory tests have the evidence 
from their subjects that after doses of 30-40 c.c. of 
alcohol corresponding to about 2 pints of “2.75 per 
cent” beer, 41 they had the feeling that they did not 
13 


Why America Went Dry 


Safety Requires Sobriety 



Workmen’s Compensation Laws 
made it necessary for employ¬ 
ers to employ sober men. 

One workman in ten was injured an¬ 
nually in United States’ industries. 

If no more than one-third of these acci¬ 
dents were due to drink; about 8,000 deaths, 
100,000 severe injuries and 600,000 slighter 
hurts every year, WERE DUE TO ALCOHOL. 

Sobriety Promotes Caution and 
Steadiness, Saves Lives and Limbs 

Accident estimates based on Statistics by F. L. Hoffman, Proceedings Nat. Safety 
Council, 1914, p. 147. 

Series E. No. 66 

COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 

WESTERVILLE, OHIO 





care what happened. The loosening of the sense of 
responsibility is likely to be dangerous when work¬ 
ing with machinery. 

As early as 1897 employers were discovering that 
the drinking workmen might occasion serious loss as 
shown by the inquiry of the United States Commis¬ 
sioner of Labor. It brought replies from 1,794 em¬ 
ployers who required that their employees should be 
total abstainers from alcoholic liquors. About one- 
half of them gave as the reason for this requirement 
that they wished to guard against accidents. With 
this, which was given the sole reason in 686 cases, 
there were linked in the remaining replies such rea¬ 
sons as these: 

“To guard against abuse of animals, dishonesty, 
ineffiicency, poor work,” or “because of the unrelia¬ 
bility of drinkers,” or, “because of the responsibility 
of the work.” 5 

In the final report of the British Health of Mu¬ 
nition Workers’ Committee, there is related the expe¬ 
rience of a factory where fuses were made during the 
war. The number of accidents among night-work¬ 
ers fell rapidly after the restriction of consumption 
of alcoholic liquors. 4 

67 . THE DRINKER ENDANGERS HIS MATES 

In his famous address, “The Alcohol Question,” 
Dr. G. von Bunge discussed the question of the right 
of personal liberty to drink if one chose, saying: “Let 
us never forget that the drinker not only harms him¬ 
self but exposes to harm those about him. Every 
year hundreds of thousands of human beings perish 
through the intoxication of another. Recall the sta¬ 
tistics of accidents. . . . We have the right to de¬ 
fend ourselves. We are not obliged to live with men 
15 


Why America Went Dry 


The Drinker 

Endangers His Mates 

Bear in mind that the man 
who has had a little alco¬ 
hol is liable to go off at 
half-cock. 


He Acts Thoughtlessly or Reck¬ 
lessly then Somebody Gets Hurt 



Two Men were Killed and 
Three Crippled 

because the crane operator 
had been drinking. 

He started the machinery too 
soon and crushed his mates. 



Theiss: The Outlook, August 8, 1914 
Series E. No, G7 


COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 











whose brains are constantly semi-paralyzed. As 
soon as we have the power to prevent it, we have the 
right to do so.” 6 

The danger that the drinker might cause acci¬ 
dent not only to himself but to his fellow-workmen 
is one reason why as machinery came more and more 
into use, employers began to require abstinence on 
the part of workers, and workers began to realize that 
abstinence is a safety measure for themselves. So¬ 
briety, carefulness, and attentiveness are all neces¬ 
sary to industry, and sobriety will help secure the 
other two qualities. Scientific experiments with al¬ 
cohol show that its narcotic effects dull caution, that 
sometimes it makes the worker act more quickly than 
he should, but with more mistakes. The National 
Safety Council of the United States, including a mem¬ 
bership of 1,700 industries and employing over 2,500,- 
000 workers, in 1914 adopted this resolution: 39 

“WHEREAS, It is recognized that the drinking of alcoholics is 
productive of a heavy per cent of the accidents and diseases affecting the 
safety and efficiency of workingmen, 

“BE IT RESOLVED, That it is the sense of this organization 
that it go on record in favor of eliminating the use of intoxicants from 
the industries of the nation.” 

In the iron and steel industries much work for¬ 
merly done by hand is now performed by machines. 
Laborers used to carry, pull, shovel, or lift materials. 
Now machinery lifts or carries in a few minutes more 
material than many men could lift or carry or pull in 
a whole day. In one of America's great steel com¬ 
panies a superintendent of labor said of the need of 
care on the part of the workers, “Cranemen must be 
exceedingly careful. They work with melted metal 
over the heads of workers and near molds that topple 
with a slight jar.” 7 

This means that the machine operators must be 
on their guard against accident every minute of the 

17 


Why America Went Dry 


PROHIBITION 

REDUCED THE ACCIDENT RATE 


54 

In the steel mills in Coates- 
ville, Pa., first six months 
after the city went dry. 


13 Percent 

In the largest copper¬ 
mining and smelting com¬ 
pany in Arizona the first 
dry year [19151 

1. John H. Cole, Sec’y, Mendenhall, Pa. 

2. Thomas K. Marshall : ‘•Prohibition in Arizona and its Effect upon Industry 
Savings and Municipal Government,” p. 4. 

Series E. No. OS 

COPYRIGHTED TQ20 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 

WESTERVILLE, OHIO 

















day. 1 hey can not afford to lessen by alcoholic drink 
their mental alertness in the operation of machinery. 
One error in judgment may injure machinery that will 
require two or three weeks for repairs, or may injure 
workers. The workers underneath the crane “are at 
the mercy of the judgment of the cranemen. Alco¬ 
hol attacking the nervous system, as it does, becomes 
a menace to mechanical work; first, because it lowers 
and endangers productive power and organization of 
industrial establishments; secondly, because it in¬ 
creases error on the part of workers which, in ma¬ 
chine industry, means great loss to life and prop¬ 
erty.” 7 


68 . PROHIBITION REDUCED THE 
ACCIDENT RATE 

“If the actual cause of all the accidents occurring 
daily in the factories, mills, and various fields of labor 
could be truthfully determined, fully one-half would 
be found to be the result of carelessness, unfamiliar¬ 
ity with conditions, dulled mentality, or stupidity,” 
said Dr. Nelson M. Black in 1916. 8 “As a rule, the 
man who is careless will not see that the machine he 
is working with is in perfect order, or that the tools 
he is working with are what they should be, and he 
will neglect to use the means of protection against 
injury furnished him by his employer. As a result 
he receives an injury. ... A man may begin work 
and follow the instructions absolutely until he be¬ 
comes familiar with their operation, and then have a 
contempt for the instructions and put his hand or 
foot in a dangerous place contrary to instructions. 
Having done the thing for so long a time he thinks 
there is no danger for him, and he does it just once 
too often, with a maimed hand, arm, foot, or leg, the 

19 


loss of an eye, or even the loss of life, as a result. 

“An individual should not be employed where his 
lack of brains would endanger himself or others. By 
‘dullness’ is meant slow thinking or a brain that is not 
alert, one that is dulled by late hours together with 
drinking and carousing and the resulting loss of sleep. 
The man who is rested by a good night’s sleep and 
whose brain is not befuddled by liquor can look out 
for himself far better than the one who has to think 
two or three times before deciding what to do, espe¬ 
cially in an emergency.” 

Vernon 9 found that when he took with food 60 
c.c. of alcohol equivalent to a little over a pint of light 
wine, or 30 c.c., 41 without food, within an hour or so 
afterward on beginning to do work requiring coordi¬ 
nation of muscles, there was at the very first an exces¬ 
sive amount of clumsiness. He comments that if this 
proves to be generally true, it is “of great practical 
importance with reference to the causation of indus¬ 
trial accidents, for it means that a workman who 
started his work when under the influence of a special 
quantity of alcohol would have at the outset a special 
liability to make mistakes in coordinated movements; 
that is, he would be especially liable to meet with an 
accident or to spoil his work.” 

The general campaign in the United States to 
reduce the number of industrial accidents had begun 
before prohibition went into efifect so that it is impos¬ 
sible to estimate exactly the effect which the prohi¬ 
bition of intoxicating liquors may have had in the 
country as a whole in reducing this class of accidents. 
The statements on the illustration relate to the expe¬ 
rience in a city and in a state in the opinion of the 
employers. State prohibition went into effect in Ari¬ 
zona in 1915. The Copper Queen Company, at that 
20 


time the largest mining and melting company in the 
State, reported that they had many more men em¬ 
ployed in 1915 than in 1914. But the accident rate 
in 1914 was 2 -6 per 1,000 shifts of men; in 1915, the 
rate was but 0.45 per 1,000 shifts of men. 10 

The Manufacturers’ Record in 1922 published 
many statements concerning the effect of prohibition 
on industry. Among them were the following as to 
the effect on accidents: 

Henry M. Leland, President of Lincoln Motor Company, Detroit, 
Michigan: “At one time [before prohibition] there were eighteen sa¬ 
loons near our plant, and at noon and night these were crowded with 
men who returned to their work with trembling hands, unsteady legs, 
distorted vision, and soured dispositions. The frequency of accidents, 
to say nothing of indifferent workmanship and spoiled material, was for¬ 
merly one of the heaviest burdens of industry. Prohibition has certainly 
made for contentment and prosperity among employes in industry.” 

E. T. Weir, President of Weirton Steel Company, Weirton, West 
Virginia: “The consensus of opinion from mangers of our different 
mills is that under prohibition there have been fewer accidents.” 

D. H. Campbell, Mining Engineer, Iron River, Michigan: “For 
the first nine months after the State of Michigan went under prohibi¬ 
tion, the number of days of absence from work due to accidents fell off 
68 per cent. I made inquiry from a large company near by and their re¬ 
sults were practically the same, showing, beyond question, that the men 
were going underground in the mines in far better condition to take 
care of themselves.” 


69. SOBRIETY MAKES STREETS SAFER 

Transportation is rapidly passing from the day 
when passengers or goods were transported by the 
horse-drawn vehicle. The steam-engine, the electric 
street car, the automobile and the auto-truck are dis¬ 
placing the older, slower, and safer methods. The 
United States of America alone has now in operation 
over 17,000,000 motor vehicles running over its city 
streets and country roads. It was possible, perhaps, 
in the old days for the half-drunken driver to depend 
on his horses to get him and his load safely home. 
But today, the enormously valuable loads carried by 
the motor trucks, the millions of lives transported by 

21 


Why America Went Dry 


SOBRIETY 


Makes St reets Saf er 
for Children and Aged 



By use of a drink 
A second was lost; 
For want of a second 
A life was lost. 


Alcohol Slows and Confuses the Mind 
So It can not Easily Meet Emergencies 


Series E. No. 69 


COPYRIGHTED 1 9 20 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 






















motor cars can not be entrusted to ^half-drunken 
drivers, or to drivers who, because they have taken 
drink shortly before starting* out, can not think 
quickly in emergency, or act quickly enough in the 
second of time in which action must be taken to avoid 
running over a child or to prevent a collision. 

“The old beverage liquor system in operation in 
this automobile age in America is unthinkable. 
What degree of safety, under such a condition, would 
be possible to any traveler upon the roads or to any 
pedestrian on the sidewalks? If America faces such 
a situation now, what will the other countries of the 
world do in regard to this question as the use of auto¬ 
mobiles rapidly increases as it is certain to do within 
the next few years?” 11 

58. DIFFERENT DRINKS, BUT THE SAME 
AMOUNT OF ALCOHOL 

Because the wine, beer or cider drinker uses a 
larger quantity of his beverage he may easily drink 
in a day, or an evening, as much alcohol as the whisky 
drinker, or even more. 

As shown by the illustration one pint of light 
wine (8 per cent alcohol) or 2 pints of beer (4 per 
cent) contain as much alcohol as 3 ounces of whisky. 
A large part of the popular consumption of alcohol 
in the United States formerly was in wines and beers. 
In the last normal pre-prohibition year (1916) the 
per capita consumption of alcohol in the form of wine 
and beer was greater than the amount consumed in 
spirits, assuming the wine to contain on the average 
no more' than 8 per cent alcohol; the beer, 3 >4 per 
cent alcohol; and the spirits, 42 per cent alcohol (by 
volume). ’ 


23 


Why America Went Dry 

DIFFERENT DRINKS 


But the. 



Alcohol oz. Alcohol 1!4 oz. Alcohol l'/4 oz. Alcohol 1*4 oz. 

All fermented drinks, such as cider, 
wine, and beer, as well as whisky 

contain alcohol. 

ALCOHOL is DANGEROUS WHATEVER ITS FORM 

“We have three great habit-forming 
curses — cocain, morphin, alcohol .’ 1 

—Bulletin of Now York City Board of Health 


Series E. No. 58 

COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 







Per capita consumption U. S. year ending June 
30, 1916: 37 

Wine . 0.47 gallons 

Malt liquors. 17.78 “ 

Distilled liquors. 1.37 “ 

Glasses ordinarily used hold enough of these 
drinks to weaken the natural self-restraint of a person 
not accustomed to them. Weakened self-restraint 
sometimes results in readier speech; it is called “loos¬ 
ening the tongue” and is one of the arguments used 
for social drinking. Alcohol sets many people to 
talking more glibly at first, and, for a few minutes 
makes them more animated and more inclined to talk. 
But not infrequently after the drinking has gone on 
for a time, the talk is foolish or careless. 

If no more drinks are taken, the effects pass off 
in a little while, but while they last the drinker is in 
greater danger of taking another drink than if he had 
his normal power of self-restraint, especially if people 
are drinking in company. Companions urge one an¬ 
other to drink again. Refusal is ridiculed as a sign 
of weakness or fear. One who in normal condition 
might have the courage to ignore such teasing is more 
likely to yield while under the effects of the first glass. 

Thus, one chief danger in taking a single glass 
of any alcoholic drink is its tendency to lead to a sec¬ 
ond glass or more. Other effects may then become 
so apparent that all can see them. Some who are 
ignorant of the first effects of alcohol may condemn 
the drinker for not “knowing when he had enough.” 
They are blaming him for not exercising self-control 
in using the alcohol, one of the first effects of which 
is to weaken self-control. He ran this risk in taking 
the first glass. 


25 





Why America Went Dry 


Alcohol Effect 
Is a Drug Effect 



1 Healthy Spinal Nerve Cell 2, i, 4 , 5 , Spinal Nerve Cells, Injured by Alcohol 

The alcohol that every alcoholic liquor con¬ 
tains is a narcotic drug. 

It injures body cells, especially brain and 
nerve cells, first in their action, later in form. 

Thus, it disorders for a short time, or per¬ 
manently if continued, nerve control of the 
body, reason, will, self-control, morals. 

Series E. No. 61 

COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 

WESTERVILLE, OHIO 



61. ALCOHOL EFFECT IS A DRUG EFFECT 

A nerve cell consists of a somewhat rounded 
body with several long thread-like fibres. Along the 
fibres of a healthy normal nerve cell (left-hand figure 
of the upper row in illustration) may be seen at quite 
regular intervals, numerous short “twigs.” 

Cells taken after death from the brains of men or 
animals that have been poisoned for a long time with 
alcohol, sometimes show (right-hand figure of upper 
row) irregular masses along the fibres in place of the 
fine twigs, as if something had caused the twigs to 
break down and run together. 

If these branching fibres aid, as is supposed, in 
the passage of thought currents through the brain, 
their mutilation when it occurs must interfere with 
normal thinking power. 

The body of a healthy cell presents the appear¬ 
ance of a fine regular net-work (No. i of the second 
row of figures on the illustration). Cells that have 
been injured by continued alcohol poisoning (Nos. 
2, 3, 4 and 5 on illustration) lose their regular network 
and some of their parts appear to break down and fade 
out. A nerve thus injured is not replaced. 

Not all damage to the nerve cells done by alcohol 
is severe enough to change their form. Small 
amounts used only for a short time might produce no 
effects on the form of cells that could be seen under a 
microscope. But effects on the working ^ower of 
the brain and nerve cells have been detected after 
amounts of alcohol no larger than one would get in 
an ordinary glass or two of beer or wine. (Nos. 52, 
59,63, 64, 65,78.) 

Alcohol is a narcotic drug. Such drugs act prin¬ 
cipally on the nerve cells. They dull strong painful 
27 


feeling, reduce temporarily the action of the nerve 
cells. The length of time the effect lasts and the de¬ 
gree of the effect varies according to the drug used. 
Among these drugs are morphin, ether, and alcohol. 

It is not known exactly how alcohol interferes 
with nerve activity; but the explanation considered 
most probable is that it acts upon the junctions be¬ 
tween nerve cells technically called synapses. 

“It is now pretty well established that we may 
properly regard the nervous system as consisting of 
a vast number of vital units, the nerve-cells, each con¬ 
sisting of a central body and one or more slender 
threads or fibres; each cell having no anatomical but 
only a functional continuity with others. Their rela¬ 
tions to one another may be likened to those of a 
crowd of people in which each person maintains rela¬ 
tions with his fellows and communicates with them 
only by the touch of hands and feet. There is much 
evidence to show that these points of contact are the 
weak points of the nervous pathways; the points that 
give way most readily under strain or shock and un¬ 
der the influence of fatigue and of various paralyzing 
drugs. 

“Further, there is good reason to believe that in 
the pathways of the lower levels of the brain, those 
which subserve the functions first developed in the 
race and in the individual, the points of junction are 
relatively firm and open to the passage of the nerve 
current; •while those of higher and later developed 
levels are less solidly organized, and that they there¬ 
fore offer more resistance to the passage of the nerv¬ 
ous current, in proportion as they stand high in the 
scale of function and late in the order of development. 
If we accept this view, and if we make the further 
simple assumption that alcohol acts equally upon all 
28 


such junctions of nerve cells (or synapses) we have 
the explanation of the phenomena of drunkenness 
[the successive stages of intoxication from excitabil¬ 
ity to unconsciousness]. For by the terms of the 
hypothesis, the alcohol, acting* equally upon all cell- 
junctions in the nervous system to increase their re¬ 
sistance to the passage of the nervous current, will 
first raise this resistance to the point of impermea¬ 
bility in those junctions in which it is normally high¬ 
est, that is, the latest developed paths of highest func¬ 
tion; and it will progressively effect a similar pa¬ 
ralysis of other nerve paths in the descending order 
of functional dignity and complexity.” 38 

Thus would be explained the progressive nar¬ 
cotization observable in drinkers, ranging all the way 
from an increased feeling of well-being through the 
stages of blunting of self-criticism, impairment of 
self-control, emotional instability, uncontrolled pas¬ 
sions or actions, finally unconsciousness, and even 
death, if the narcotization proceeds so far. The later 
scientific work, done with extreme care and all the 
latest mechanical devices for ensuring accuracy, indi¬ 
cates that alcohol “is from first to last a narcotic 
drug.” 38 This narcotic effect explains why the alco¬ 
hol in cider, wine, beer, or spirits gets a grip on many 
a drinker which he finds difficult or impossible to 
throw off. Alcohol has some kinship in action with 
other narcotic drugs. Morphin, for example, tends 
to produce a change in mental and bodily functions 
which creates a need or craving for the drug. The 
gratification of such craving is called habit-forming, 
and such drugs “habit-forming drugs.” The user 
tends to become less and less susceptible to the imme¬ 
diate effects of the drugs; hence tends to increase the 
dose to get the effects. And when he is deprived of 
29 


the dose he feels discomfort and often shows serious 
symptoms. 

Both of these conditions may appear in the alco¬ 
hol addict though in less severe form than in the 
morphin addict. But the difference is one of de¬ 
gree rather than of kind. The body gradually be¬ 
comes accustomed to alcohol so that it takes more 
and more of it to produce an effect that the user finds 
pleasant or to produce drunkenness. Thus an indi¬ 
vidual, who has been drinking for some time, may 
boast that he can get away with several drinks with¬ 
out getting drunk. This simply means that his body 
has become so far accustomed to alcohol that it takes 
more than it once did to make him drunk. 

By the time that he finds that he can take more 
beer or wine or spirits, without getting drunk than he 
could at first, he has another motive for drinking be¬ 
sides the desire to be social. The narcotic effect of 
alcohol by benumbing the feeling of weariness, or of 
cold makes him think that he “feels good” after drink¬ 
ing; by removing restraints it causes him to feel gay 
or happy. Little by little more alcohol is required to 
produce this feeling. Just as he can drink larger 
amounts without getting drunk, so he has to drink 
larger amounts to get the feeling he wants, much as 
the user of narcotic drugs like morphin and opium 
has to use more and more of them to get their de¬ 
sired effect. So before he realizes that alcohol has 
been drugging him, he goes on increasing the amount 
that he drinks, believing that as long as he does not 
become drunken, or but seldom, no harm is done. 

Just to the extent that the drinker finds himself 
uncomfortable in trying to stop drinking he has be¬ 
come addicted to the narcotic alcohol. The effect of 
alcohol in impairing the power of self-control, as a re- 
30 


suit of its continued action on the nervous system, in¬ 
creases the difficulty of breaking a habit once estab¬ 
lished. Ihis is a possibility always to be reckoned 
with by the drinker, since no one knows in advance 
the extent of his susceptibility. 

59 * BEER IS A BLUFFER 

Many a beer drinker claims that he uses it to give 
him strength in doing hard work. There is nothing 
in the beer except alcohol which he can not obtain in 
better quality in other forms of food or drink. The 
idea that alcohol furnishes strength for work is dis¬ 
proved by many scientific experiments which the 
mountain climbing experiment of Durig was one. 17 
His carefully measured results showed that the alco¬ 
hol taken made him work harder and longer to do a 
given piece of work than when he took none. 

He thought that this result was due to impair¬ 
ment by alcohol of the skill with which movements are 
directed. It was as if the effect of previous training 
had been lost. The dose of alcohol reduced the expe¬ 
rienced climber to the level of the beginner who makes 
too many movements and those badly directed or ill- 
judged. Thus the alcohol taken, equivalent to that 
in pints of beer tended “to undo the effect of pre¬ 
vious training.” 38 

So, in colloquial phrase, alcohol is fooling men 
when they think it helps them to do their work. 

Nor does beer improve the quality of work. 
Alcohol impairs the steadiness of muscles required by 
many kinds of work. Dr. H. L. Hollingworth, 18 of 
Columbia University, tested the steadiness of the ex¬ 
tended arm in some young men before and after they 
had taken light beer containing 2.75 per cent alcohol 
(by weight). The dose was taken practically on 
31 


Why America Went Dry 


Beer is a Bluffer 



Beer doesn’t Make Hard 
Work Easier 


It decreases muscle power 
and increases waste motions 
and fatigue. 


Beer doesn’t Really Cool One Off 


The alcohol in it disorders 
the body’s heat regulating 
system, thereby increasing 
the danger from both heat 
and cold. 

Beer doesn’t Rest One 


It merely deadens the 
tired feeling. Food, play 
and sleep truly restore. 


Beer Contains Alcohol, a Habit-Forming Drug 

Horsley : Alcohol and the Human Body 

Series E. No. 59 

COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
# BOSTON, MASS. 

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 

WESTERVILLE, OHIO 











an empty stomach at the noon meal hour. Six tests 
were made in the forenoon before the dose of alcohol, 
and six tests were made afterward. On certain days 
a “control” dose was given. This was exactly like 
the beer given, except that the alcohol had been re¬ 
moved. The experiment measured the tremor in the 
extended arm by the number of movements of a stated 
magnitude in one minute. On the control days the 
average net loss in efficiency in the afternoon was 21 
per cent. On the days when 40-60 c.c. 41 of the light 
beer were drunk in the noon hour the steadiness in 
the afternoon decreased 68 per cent. After larger 
doses of alcohol (66-79 c.c.) the steadiness decreased 
241 per cent in the afternoon. 

Another test of work measured the number of 
taps made in one minute by a stylus held in the hand, 
using the forearm only. On the “control” non¬ 
alcohol days there was no loss in efficiency in the 
afternoon. 

Miles (Carnegie Nutrition Laboratory) 19 also 
conducted experiments with an alcoholic solution 
containing 2.75 per cent alcohol by weight. The 
work done in the experiment was similar to that of 
steering a ship by compass. In the latter case the 
steersman has to control the wheel so that a certain 
point on the circumference of the compass card is 
always exactly opposite another point on the fixed 
framework of the compass. Any variation of the 
ship from her course makes the compass card swing 
in one or another direction and the steersman must 
bring it back by correctly manipulating the wheel. 
The electrical “pursuit-meter” used by Miles had a 
needle which the operator must keep steady. The 
needle received impulses to swing in varying direc¬ 
tions even much more quickly and irregularly than 

33 


does a ship compass card. The operator has to coun¬ 
teract these impulses by moving a handle. When the 
needle deviated from its proper position the amount 
of electrical current was recorded. Hence the more 
inaccurate the movements of the operator, the more 
the meter recorded. 

Miles found that after his operator had drunk 
alcohol diluted to the equivalent of about iy 2 pints 
of 2.75 per cent beer, the meter recorded the passage 
of about 11 per cent more current than when he had 
drunk water only. This represents an impairment 
of accuracy of about 11 per cent after taking alcoholic 
liquid of only 2.75 per cent alcoholic strength. 

Miles concluded from this and other experi¬ 
ments : “There is no longer room for doubt in refer¬ 
ence to the toxic action of beverages as weak as 2.75 
per cent by weight.” 

One popular idea about beer is that it cools one in 
summer and warms one in winter. It does not do 
this. It disorders the body’s natural mechanism for 
maintaining an even body temperature. In cold 
weather alcohol gives a temporary feeling of warmth. 
The reason for this is that alcohol dulls the nerves 
controlling the blood vessels of the skin. When this 
control is impaired, more blood is allowed to flow 
near the surface of the body, and this warm blood 
feels warm to the nerves in the skin. But bringing 
this extra amount of blood to the surface in cold 
weather cools it, and causes the body to lose an un¬ 
necessary amount of heat, and the result may be a 
lowering of body temperature. Thus the person who 
drinks beer or any other alcoholic liquor to keep off 
cold is likely really to suffer more from cold, and 
may even incur serious injury or death if he has used 
much alcohol. 


34 


In summer, the cold beer feels cold as it is'being 
swallowed, but the alcohol in it disorders the nerves 
which control the body’s natural mechanism for cool¬ 
ing the body, and also may make the drinker care¬ 
less about observing ordinary precautions. 

Another idea is that beer taken after the day’s 
work is done gives rest to the tired worker. It does 
not really rest him. It dulls the feeling of weariness, 
but this does not restore the tired body as do good 
food, rest, sleep, healthful recreation. These enable 
the cells to throw off the products of fatigue and re¬ 
build for new work. In merely deadening the tired 
feeling, beer deceives the user, perhaps into doing 
more work when he ought to rest; perhaps into think¬ 
ing he is helped when in fact he is being narcotized. 

If the time spent in taking beer or other liquor 
in the idea that it rests one when tired from hard 
work were spent in completely relaxing the body, 
especially in the fresh air, it would give real rest, 
especially if a glass of milk or a cup of nourishing 
soup were taken to give the muscles genuine food. 
Milk has taken the place of beer with many American 
workers who formerly thought they had to have beer 
when doing a hard piece of work. 

60. WINE THE PASS-KEY TO ALCOHOLISM 

Juice in the fruit in normal conditions is not fer¬ 
mented and does not contain alcohol. Inside the un¬ 
broken fruit skin it is protected from the yeast cells 
in the dust (or bloom) on the outside. When the 
juice is pressed out, the yeast cells pass into it. Pas¬ 
teur taught that yeast cells, falling into liquors in 
shallow vessels, grow and multiply without produc¬ 
ing alcoholic fermentation because they can get from 
the air the oxygen they need. But when man col- 
35 


Why America Went Dry 


Wine a Pass-key 
to Alcoholism 


All Wine Contains Alcohol 

Wine contains from 8 to 20 per cent 
of alcohol. Unfermented grape-juice 
and raisins contain no alcohol and are 
desirable foods. 

Wine Impairs Working Ability 




Careful tests prove that as 
little alcohol as that in a half-pint 
of wine impaired work requiring 
skill and precision; 1 2 also mental 
working ability. 



“Men begin with wine; soon the 
palate is palled and asks for some¬ 
thing stronger" 

’■—The Paris (France) Constitutional. 


1 . Totterman : Finska Lakaresallakapets Handlinger, 1916 

2 . A. Smith : Report V. Int. Congress Against the Abuse of Alcoholic Drinks, 1895 , p. 341 


Series E. No. 60 


COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 


THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 





lects a quantity of the fruit juice so that the yeast 
cells are immersed in it, they get their oxygen from 
the sugar in the juice; in doing so the sugar is broken 
up into alcohol and carbonic acid gas. 

Fermentation is one step in the process of decay, 
breaking up the complex sugar into simpler sub¬ 
stances. In the undisturbed fruit, nature accom¬ 
plishes this by molds without producing alcohol 
liquors. Thus man, not nature, is responsible for 
providing the conditions necessary to production of 
alcoholic wine. 

Some people think wine harmless because they 
have not put alcohol into it. This is not necessary. 
The yeast cell in the air, or on the fruit, passing into 
the liquid produces the alcohol. “Light” wines in 
which alcohol is thus formed contain from 7 to 14 
per cent alcohol. At about the latter point, fermen¬ 
tation stops. Stronger wines have some form of al¬ 
cohol added. 

“The leading characteristic of wine,” says the 
Century Dictionary, “must be referred to the alcohol 
it contains and upon which its intoxicating [poison¬ 
ing] powers principally depend.” 

The ancients knew wine would intoxicate. 
From the most ancient times men have been warned 
against drinking enough wine to make them drunk, 
because, it was supposed, the harm was only in drunk¬ 
enness. History, literature, and Scripture abound in 
illustrations of the drunkenness caused by wine. 

Wine, like other alcoholic liquors, is drunk partly 
for its narcotic effect. At first this narcotic effect is 
represented by a feeling of well-being. (P. 34.) 
As time goes on, to get this effect of well-being, many 
habitual drinkers have either to increase the amount 
of wine as the body becomes accustomed to the alco- 
• 37 


hoi, or to use stronger liquors. The idea that wine 
is a safe drink if used “moderately” arose before pre¬ 
cise methods were used to study its effects; it was 
thought that as long as the drinker was not clearly 
drunken no harm was done. 

Modern scientific experimentation has shown 
that amounts of alcohol formerly considered moder¬ 
ate, taken in the form of wine, can impair efficiency. 
Aschaffenburg 20 in a well-known experiment with 
four type-setters found that their efficiency averaged 
8.7 per cent less on days when they took half a tum¬ 
bler of Greek wine before beginning their type-setting 
test than they accomplished on corresponding non¬ 
alcohol days. 

Experiments by Schulz 1 on the effects of alcohol 
on clearness of vision showed that 10 c.c. of alcohol, 
taken in the form of Rhine wine or champagne, in 
nearly all cases caused marked diminution in ability 
to distinguish shades of red and green; diminution 
of intensity of vision was more marked for red than 
for green. The tests indicated that even these mod¬ 
erate amounts of alcohol, equivalent to about one and 
one-half glassfuls of wine, might impair vision of 
persons who had to distinguish between shades of 
colors, so as to seriously impair efficiency. 

Vernon 9 conducted experiments to ascertain the 
effect of alcohol on manual work and coordination of 
nerves and muscles. Tests were made with adding 
machine work, typewriting, and pricking dots on a 
target. In his own case, 30 c.c. of alcohol taken in 
the form of claret wine caused an average increase of 
error of 16 per cent. It was more injurious than a 
similar dilution of pure alcohol which caused an in¬ 
crease of 11 per cent in errors. A similar experiment 
with four students showed again that 30 c.c. in the 
38 


form of claret impaired accuracy, on the average, even 
more than the same amount of pure alcohol diluted 
to the same alcohol strength as the claret. In ex¬ 
periments with typewriting and adding-machine 
work, while the susceptibility of subjects tested va¬ 
ried, the effect was “invariably in the direction of 
diminished control of the muscles as proved by the 
increase in the number of errors.” More errors were 
made when the alcohol was taken without food. One 
subject made 74 per cent more adding-machine mis¬ 
takes after taking claret containing 19.4 per cent of 
alcohol; another increased her mistakes in typewrit¬ 
ing 156 per cent after drinking sherry containing 22 
c.c. of alcohol. 

Vogt, 21 a Norwegian experimenter, committed 
Greek poetry to memory, sometimes after taking the 
amount of alcohol in half a pint of champagne, some¬ 
times without alcohol. He found he required about 
five times as long to learn 25 lines after taking the 
alcohol, as on the days when he took no alcohol. Six 
months later it required more effort to relearn the 
lines committed to memory on the wine days. 

Effects vary with individuals, some being af¬ 
fected by quantities which seemed to produce no con¬ 
spicuous effects on other persons. But the fact that 
impairment of efficiency has been proven possible 
makes the use of even moderate quantities of wine a 
risky experiment for the person who wishes always 
to be fit for his tasks and for emergencies which re¬ 
quire quick, accurate thought and action. 


39 


Why America Went Dry 


John Barleycorn 
Not a Good Sport 



FOOT RACING 

“I positively know from experience 
in fifteen Marathon races that alcohol 
used in any form in a race of this kind 
is a ’positive detriment.” 

GEORGE V. BROWN, Mgr., 
Boston Athletic Association, 1908 


FOOTBALL 

Coach“Hurry-Up”Yost says: 

“Nothing tries a man's 
staying power like foot¬ 
ball." He will not “waste 
his time trying to train 
drinker.” 




BASEBALL 

Connie Mack says: 

“All umpires together 
haven't put as many ball 
players out of the game as 
OLD MAN BOOZE." 


Alcoholic liquors impair strength, eyesight, judgment, 
quick thinking and reaction time. 

Series E. No. 78 

COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 

TITE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 

WESTERVILLE, OHIO 



78. JOHN BARLEYCORN NOT A GOOD 
SPORT 

The runner needs strength, endurance, good lung 
capacity, cool head. 

The statement about the use of alcohol in run¬ 
ning matches was made by the manager of the Bos¬ 
ton (Mass.) Athletic Association. Every year this 
Association conducts a running match over a con¬ 
tinuous distance corresponding to that covered by 
the famous runner from the field of the Battle of 
Marathon. One of the rules of the contest is that 
no alcoholic liquors are to be used before, during or 
immediately after the race, because experience has 
shown that the strength of the runners gives out 
more quickly when alcohol is taken. The South 
African runner, Heffron, ascribed his loss of an inter¬ 
national race in London to the fact that two miles 
from the goal he accepted a drink of champagne. “It 
was a great mistake,” he said. “I got a cramp a mile 
from the finish and then dost my head/ ” that is, he 
lost the mental poise which perhaps would have 
helped him win in spite of hampering circumstances. 

The football player needs strength, endurance 
and quick wits. Fielding Yost, who is quoted, has 
^trained university football players for many years. 
He knows that alcohol impairs the endurance (“stay¬ 
ing power”) which the player needs, and has said fur¬ 
ther that “A boy or young man who drinks does not 
give himself a fair chance.” 

The baseball player knows that the man who 
throws the ball must be able to throw it exactly where 
he wishes to place it. One of the first effects of alco¬ 
hol is to impair control. 

On a baseball team every play is a signal to every 
member of the team to do something or to stay still. 

41 


Alcohol slows ability to respond to signals, or if a 
player has to decide,quickly which one of two mo¬ 
tions to make, he may move more quickly after taking 
alcohol, but is more likely to make the wrong mo¬ 
tion. Control, quickness, accuracy are all needed in 
this game. 

The sentence quoted about baseball was spoken 
by the manager of a baseball team that for several 
years won the national American baseball champion¬ 
ship. When Connie Mack said that “Old Man 
Booze has put more men out of the game than all 
the umpires together,” he meant that drinking on 
the part, of baseball players had sometimes ruined 
their ability to play and compelled them to drop out 
of the profession. Hugh Fullerton once traced the 
careers of 32 players in the most important baseball 
teams. These men in 1903 were “moderate” drink¬ 
ers. He compared them with 24 non-drinking play¬ 
ers. The non-drinkers, as years passed, were the 
more uniformly dependable players. By 1914 out of 
32 drinkers, only 4 (12J4 per cent) were still playing. 
Of the 24 non-drinkers, 11 (49 per cent) were still 
playing. Here is what became of the players, so far 
as he was able to get information: 





Not 


• 


Pros¬ 

• Still 

Pros¬ 


Miss¬ 


perous 

Playing 

perous 

Dead 

ing 

Drinkers . . . , 

• • 5 

4 

6 

8 

• 3 

Non-drinkers 

• 14 

11 

1 

2 

0 


57. HIT THE MARK 

Tests of the effects of alcohol on markmanship 
were made by Dr. E. Kraepelin, the psychiatrist of 
Munich, on Bavarian soldiers . 16 

Twenty experts and reliable men were selected 
42 



for the 30 series of tests carried on during 16 days. 
Twenty thousand shots were fired at a distance of 200 
meters. The men lived as uniformly as possible from 
day to day and were not allowed to take doses of alco¬ 
hol other than those given in the experiment, or to use 
coffee. The day on which alcohol was given was 
followed by a day of like conditions in every respect, 
except that the same quantity of water (30-40 gms. 41 ) 
was given instead of alcohol. 

The records for shooting in the forenoon and in 
the afternoon were kept separate, as the afternoon 
efficiency in precision was not quite as *well main¬ 
tained as that of the morning. 

In each case there were four shooting periods. 
Before the first neither water nor alcohol was given, 
and it was used as the standard for the half-day's 
work. It was followed by three shooting tests per¬ 
formed respectively at 5 to 10 minutes, 25 minutes, 
and 45 minutes after the water, or the alcohol, was 
administered. The value of the work done was esti¬ 
mated by the proportion of times the shot hit the cen¬ 
ter of the target or nearly hit it. This was reckoned 
carefully by sections of the field of the target showing 
where the balls had struck. 

With 11 men there was nothing but impairment 
of efficiency from the beginning on the alcohol days. 
On the average this amounted to 4 per cent in the 
first period after taking the alcohol; with some men 
it amounted to 10 per cent. In a few cases there was 
a slight improvement in this period, usually amount¬ 
ing to only one-half of one per cent, but occasionally 
to 7 per cent. 

In the second period (25 to 30 minutes after tak¬ 
ing the alcohol) there was a sharp drop in precision, 
an average diminution of 2 per cent from the record of 
43 



Twenty Skilled Marksmen Fired 17,000 Shots in 16 Days. 

SHOOTING WAS POORER 
BY 3 TO 10 POINTS IN 100 
HALF HOUR AFTER TAKING 
ALCOHOLIC DRINK EQUAL 
TO TWO PINTS OF BEER 

Drink Impairs Skill 

Tests in Bavarian Army, 1908, by Prof. E. Kraepelin 
Intern. Monats. z. Erforshung d. Alkoholismus, Heft 10-11, Oct.-Nov., 1916 

Series E. No. 57 


COPYRIGHTED 19 1 7 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
r BOSTON, MASS. 


THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 










the non alcohol days. Seventeen of the men showed 
a decided impairment which ran from 8 per cent to 
12 per cent. 

In the third period, 45 minutes after taking the 
alcohol, the impairment of precision had begun to 
subside. On the average it was still 3 per cent, but 
in some individuals ran as high as 10 per cent. 

In only two of the men was the precision regu¬ 
larly unimpaired but slightly better after the alcohol; 
this improvement amounted to only about one-half of 
one per cent. 

Dr. Kraepelin noted that in this experiment, as in 
many others, the alcohol caused delusion in the sub¬ 
jects as to the effects. When questioned concern¬ 
ing their impression as to the effect of alcohol upon 
themselves, five thought they could shoot better 
under the influence of alcohol. Actually two had 
shown a slight improvement at the beginning, and 
one at the end. But at the maximum of the effect all 
of these three had done worse. The other two, al¬ 
though they thought they had done better, had de¬ 
creased in precision as much as 10 per cent. 

Three men thought they shot worse under the 
influence of alcohol, and this was true, but in one case 
only a little worse. 

The other men could give no opinion as to the 
effect of the alcohol, but had been unaware of the very 
marked effect of it upon their work. Ten of the men 
declared that they would rather have the alcohol when 
they were to shoot, and the majority of these were 
badly influenced by it. “Precisely in this self-decep¬ 
tion/’ said Dr. Kraepelin, “which concealed from 
them the impairment of their ability, lies a special 
danger.” It was due to the early effects of alcohol 
which impair the ability for self-judgment. 

45 


“The relatively small number of errors was prob¬ 
ably due to the fact that the men were excellent 
marksmen. Efficiency less perfected by practice is 
more susceptible to the impairing influence of alco¬ 
hol.” This is a conclusion similar to that reached by 
Hollingworth (p. 37). 

“It is, nevertheless, not an insignificant fact that 
even 40 grams of alcohol may cause impairment with¬ 
out their being conscious of it,” said Dr. Kraepelin. 
“Conditions in war often must be much more unfa¬ 
vorable than those under which our subjects were 
tested. Loss of sleep, over-exertion, insufficient food, 
irritable state of mind, may greatly increase the im¬ 
pairing effect of the alcohol which predominates even 
under favorable circumstances.” 

63. ALCOHOL MAKES HARD WORK 
HARDER 

The story of the marching test in the illustration 
is that of a Bavarian regiment during army maneu¬ 
vers in time of peace. Company A and Company B 
were allowed a moderate amount of alcoholic drink 
during their rest periods. Company C had no such 
drink. The result was as related in the illustration. 25 

General Wolseley 26 once made a similar test in 
the British army during one of several long marches 
which occupied several weeks. Some of the men 
were divided into three squads. The first squad was 
given a daily ration of whisky ; the second, a daily ra¬ 
tion of beer; the third, nothing to drink but water. 
At first the whisky squad marched gaily ahead of the 
others. Before long the beer squad overtook and 
passed it. Finally the water squad marching at a 
moderate steady gait, overtook, first the whisky 
squad, then the beer squad, and reached its destina- 
46 


tion long before the others. The alcohol benumbed 
the sense of fatigue in the two alcohol squads but 
from the beginning hastened fatigue. 

Alcohol acts as a depressant on the nervous sys¬ 
tem so that control of muscles is impaired. As a 
result, useless movements may be made; muscles may 
not work together properly so that incorrect move¬ 
ments are made. These useless or incorrect move¬ 
ments use up bodily energy so that the worker works 
just as hard or harder after taking alcohol but accom¬ 
plishes less. 

Some very careful tests made with delicate in¬ 
struments at the Carnegie Nutrition Laboratory, 27 
Boston, showed that after taking 30 to 40 c.c. of alco-“ 
hoi, 4 ! the muscles of the lower leg responded more 
slowly to a measured blow upon the tendons below 
the knee (“knee-jerk”). The thickening of the mus¬ 
cles involved was decreased 46 per cent. This repre¬ 
sents a loss in contractile power and consequently in 
lifting power. 

There are muscles that pull the eyelid quickly 
over the eye in a protective motion when a sudden 
sound is heard. After alcohol in these experiments 
the protective motion was delayed 7 per cent, and the 
extent of the movement of the eyelid was decreased 19 
per cent. The number of finger movements in a given 
time was reduced 9 per cent. The experimenters 
came to the conclusion that these and other results 
which they obtained were “clear indications of de¬ 
creased organic efficiency as a result of moderate 
doses of alcohol.” 


47 


Why America Went Dry 


ALCOHOL 

Makes Hard Work Harder 

Drink Increases Exhaustion 



In a marching test in a Euro¬ 
pean regiment the soldiers in 
Co’s A and B were given drink 
moderately; Co. C men took 
none. In Co. C only one man 
fell out exhausted; but in Co. 
A 20 men fell out; in Co. B 22 
men. 


Drink Decreases Strength 


Recent precise tests showed 
that alcohol equal to that in a 
pint of wine or a quart of Beer 
slowed the action of muscles 
tested and decreased their 
contractile power46percent. 


Alcohol & Muscular Power 



muscle 

Fibres 


Fibrils—. 


Fibres—. 


wrv l HAL TiLF POWER DIMINISHED 


MUSCLf FREE FROM ALCOHOL 

CONTRACTILE POWER NORMAL 


1. Hoppe: Die Tatsachen uber den Alcohol, 1912, p. 202 

2. Dodge and Benedict: Psychological Effects of Alcohol, 1914 

Series E. No. 63 


COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 


THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 














64 . ALCOHOL IMPAIRS SUPERIOR SKILL 

In skilled work, brain, nerves, muscles, eye, 
hands, or feet, must work together according to the 
kind of work to be done. Practice is necessary to 
acquire skill. 

Experiments with alcohol have shown that it 
tends to decrease the skill one may have won by prac¬ 
tice and hard work. 

The drawing in the illustration shows the results 
of one of these tests. 

The experimenter 28 for the test threaded needles 
to find how much work his brain, nerves, and muscles 
of eye and hand could do and whether alcohol im¬ 
paired this ability to work. He put 200 needles in a 
cushion, cut a lot of threads about 8 inches long, laid 
the threads straight on a board so that he could easily 
pick up single threads, then threaded just as many 
needles as he could in five minutes, throwing each 
needle as it was threaded upon a piece of paper. At 
the end of 5 minutes he laid a new piece of paper over 
the threaded needles, and went on threading for an¬ 
other five minutes, until he had worked twenty min¬ 
utes in all. Then it was easy fc5r him to count the 
number of needles he had threaded in each five min¬ 
utes and the total number in the day. 

The figures at the left in the drawing represent 
the number of needles threaded. The white columns 
show the amount of work each day when he took no 
alcohol ; the black columns show the work done on 
the days when he took 25 c.c. of alcohol. 41 

The first group of white columns show that 
day by day he increased the number of needles he 
could thread in 20 minutes. The first day he threaded 
but .103; the second day, 150 needles; the third day 
165. By the 12th and 13th and 14th days he could 
49 


Why America Went Dry 


ALCOHOL 
IMPAIRS SUPERIOR SKILL 




Drinking Impairs 
all kinds of highly skilled 
hand work, such as watch¬ 
making, fine tool work, 
surgery, which require 
precise nerve control of 
the muscles. 


Scientific Experiment Proved 


Drinking decreased 
by 10 to 15 per cent fine 
hand work in tests 
made 11 hours after 
taking the equiva¬ 
lent of 1 2 pints of 
2.75 per cent beer . 

The worker also tired 
sooner. 



1. Uno Totterman : Finska Lakaresallskapets Handlingar, Oct. 1916 
Series E. No. 64 


COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 


THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 



















































thread more than 180. He gained skill by practice. 

Then he began taking the alcohol n hours be¬ 
fore he did his needle-threading (black column). At 
first his skill continued to increase, but by the 20th 
day the number of needles threaded had fallen to 177 
and from that time on through the rest of the alcohol 
days, the number continued to fall till on the 24th 
day he threaded but 164 needles. Alcohol caused 
him to lose some of the skill he had won by practice. 
During the last of these alcohol days he found that 
his hand trembled a little and his eyes grew tired 
more easily. 

Then he stopped the alcohol. The second group 
of white columns show that skill returned quickly 
and increased almost constantly till on the last day 
he threaded 191 needles. 

65 . ALCOHOL HINDERS SUCCESS IN 
BUSINESS 

The essentials of a good stenographer are atten¬ 
tion, ability to think quickly, to transcribe notes ac¬ 
curately and speedily, care in details, a sense of re¬ 
sponsibility. 

“A typewriter is merciless. An error is an error and throws out the 
entire piece of work. One simply has to become 100 per cent, accurate. 
This habit of absolute occuracy is of highest value because into forming 
it, goes persistent honest effort.”—E. S. Adams. 

Reference has already been made (No. 60) to 
some English experiments as to the effect of alcohol 
in the form of wine on typewriting. 

Frankfurther 29 made other tests on the effect of 
alcohol on typewriting. He wrote from memory a 
few lines from a poem of Schiller amounting to about 
4,500 letters. Every day a preliminary test was made 
to ascertain the working ability of that day. Then 
the results of subsequent tests were compared with 
51 


Why America Went Dry 


alcohol 

Mere Sictess in Busaess 



Speed in type-writing was reduced and 
more than twice as many mistakes made 
after taking alcohol equal to that in a 
pint bottle of wine or two bottles of beer. 

Experiments in writing, adding and 
memorizing also showed poorer work. 

Alcohol Impaired Nerve Control and 
thus Speed and Accuracy 

Frankfurther : Psycliologische arbeiten, Vol. VI, 1914 
Series E. No. 65 


COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 


THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO . 





the results of the preliminary test. The amount of 
alcohol used was 40 c.c. 41 diluted to half its strength 
and flavored with 20 c.c. of raspberry juice. Normal 
days alternated with alcohol days. The alcohol on 
the alcohol days was taken after the preliminary test 
and an interval of 20 minutes was allowed for the 
influence of the fatigue of the preceding work to pass 
off. The same interval was allowed after the pre¬ 
liminary test on the days when no alcohol was taken 
(normal days). 

The amount of work done in the preliminary 
tests on the non-alcohol days averaged 109 letters per 
half minute; in the chief test, it averaged 108 letters, 
a decrease of but one letter which would reasonably 
be attributed to fatigue. 

On the alcohol days, the preliminary tests aver¬ 
aged 114.2 letters per half minute; but in the tests 
made after alcohol was taken, only 108.6 letters were 
written. 

Expressed in percentages the working ability in 
the chief experiment on the non-alcohol days was 99 
per cent of that shown to be normal for the day. On 
the alcohol days the working ability after taking the 
alcohol was but 95 per cent of the normal for the 
average day. 

The loss in quality of work was much greater 
than the loss in quantity of work. 

On the non-alcohol days there were, on the aver¬ 
age, 16 errors per 1,000 letters struck in the prelim¬ 
inary tests. In the chief experiment on these same 
days the average number of errors was 17 per 1,000 
letters struck. 

On the alcohol days there were 14 errors per 
1,000 letters struck, in the preliminary tests. That 
is, the normal work on those days before alcohol was 

53 


taken was more accurate than in the same prelim¬ 
inary tests on the non-alcohol days. But notwith¬ 
standing this better beginning on the alcohol days, 
the errors after taking the alcohol increased to an 
average of 31 errors per 1,000 letters struck. 

The experimenter said of his experience on the 
alcohol days: 

“I had the feeling that the fingers ran faster than I could find the 
right place for the stroke. I often struck keys against my will so that I 
had to make an effort to hold back a motion in order not to make a mis¬ 
take at every letter.” 

For employers of labor the evidence showing the 
greatest number of mistakes made after alcohol had 
been taken has a practical interest. In the case of a 
skilled workman, this effect of alcohol might result 
in spoiled work; in the unskilled laborer the result 
might be damage to property or accidents, or loss of 
life. Drink increases dangers for workmen them¬ 
selves, may make them less skillful and, therefore, 
less able to earn good wages. 

62 . DOCTORS DROPPING ALCOHOL AS 
MEDICINE 

With the wider medical knowledge of recent 
years physicians have been changing their methods 
of treatment of disease. Among these changes is a 
decreasing employment of alcohol as medicine. 

About 30,000 physicians in the United States 
were asked in 1922 their views as to the necessity of 
using whisky, wine, or beer for medicine. 23 About 
one-half thought that whisky might be useful at 
times, but more than half had not found it necessary 
to prescribe it. Two-thirds of them said that wine 
is unnecessary; and three-fourths of them said there 
is no medical necessity for beer. The National Pro¬ 
hibition Enforcement Act of the United States al- 
54 


lows physicians to prescribe spirits for medical pur¬ 
poses if they observe certain limitations and regula¬ 
tions in obtaining it, except in States where State law 
forbids the sale even for medical purposes. 

The hospitals are using far less alcohol as medi¬ 
cine than formerly. An inquiry 24 in 1922 as to the 
quantity of alcohol administered in many of the larg¬ 
est hospitals in 1920 and 1921 brought out the fol¬ 
lowing facts: 

Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland, with 300 beds and 
106,000 patients in the out-patient department, with 
attending physicians from all parts of the city did not 
have a single prescription for alcoholic liquor handed 
in during 1921. Grant Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, 
reported: “We carry no brandy, whisky, or wine. 
We feel they are not needed.” 

Cook County Hospital in Chicago reported that 
it had used no alcoholic liquor in the treatment of dis¬ 
eases since national prohibition went into effect. 
The Hospital Division of the Department of Public 
Welfare of St. Louis, Missouri, reported: “We have 
neither purchased nor dispensed any whisky, brandy 
or wine during 1920 and 1921.” Pennsylvania Hos¬ 
pital reported that it used half a barrel of whisky and 
brandy in 1921. This was about one-fortieth of what 
was used 25 years ago, although the number of pa¬ 
tients was more than doubled. For the 10 public 
hospitals of New York City including the great Belle¬ 
vue and Metropolitan Hospitals, not over 700 gallons 
of whisky have been purchased annually for several 
years. Only the older physicians prescribe it. The 
City Hospitals of St. Paul and Minneapolis and 44 
other hospitals of the State of Minnesota reported 
that they use no alcoholic liquors in treatment of pa¬ 
tients. The Presbyterian Home Hospital of Mem- 
55 . 


Why America Went Dry 


Doctors are Dropping 
Alcohol as a Medicine 



The Doctors Said: 

“The use of alcohol in medicine as a 
tonic, a stimulant or for food has no scien¬ 
tific value and should be discouraged.’’ 

From Resolutions adopted (1917) 

By House of Delegates of American Medical Association 


Doctors agree that alcohol should not be used as a medicine, except when pre¬ 
scribed by a competent physician. Very little is prescribed by any doctor as com¬ 
pared with fifty years ago. Very many doctors never prescribe alcohol. 


Series E. No. 62 

COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE. OHIO 








piiis, Tennessee, reported, “We get along just as well 
without it as we did when we used it.” Dr. Charles 
Mayo in his address as president of the American 
Medical Association in 1917 said: 40 “Medicine has 
reached a place where alcohol is rarely employed as 
a drug, being replaced by better remedies.” 

The reduced medical use of alcoholic liquor 
which still remains represents a great change from 
the practice of even a century ago when it was largely 
used in the treatment of many diseases for which it 
is practically never used today. 

70 . WHY INVITE DISEASE? 

Mortality from organic and degenerative dis¬ 
ease is not confined, of course, to drinkers of alcoholic 
beverages. But life insurance experience shows that 
certain classes of these diseases occur disproportion¬ 
ately among those exposed to injury from alcoholic 
beverages. 

The investigation of the records of the American 
and Canadian life insurance companies 14 showed that 
in the drinking groups the death-rate from Bright’s 
Disease was above normal, and that among the so- 
called steady moderate drinkers (defined as those 
using more than two glasses of beer or a glass of 
whisky daily) the death-rate from cirrhosis of the 
liver was five times the normal. 

Among saloonkeepers who tended their bar 
where liquor was sold, the death-rate from cirrhosis 
of the liver was six times the normal; from diabetes, 
three times the normal; from cerebral hemorrhage or 
apoplexy, nearly twice the normal; from organic dis¬ 
eases of the heart, nearly twice the normal; from 
Bright’s Disease, nearly three times the normal. 

For brewery officials insuring under 45 years of 
57 


Why America Went Dry 


Why Invite Disease? 


ALCOHOL AND THE STOMACH 



HEALTHY STOMACH * CTOMACH INJUREP BY DRINK 


The use of alcoholic 
liquors tends to slow 
digestion. Continued 
or heavy drinking may 
cause gastric catarrh 
and other stomach 
disorders, and rarely, 
ulcers. 


ALCOHOL AND THE LIVER 


Long continued or heavy 
drinking may cause fatty 
degeneration or “hobnailed" 
liver. 




HEALTHY HEART 


ALCOHOL AND THE HEART 

Alcohol is not a stimulant but 
a depressant. Continued or heavy 
use may cause permanent injury to 
the heart or blood vessels.' 

A FATTY AND DILATED HEART 
OF A RELR DRINKER 

ALCOHOL AND THE KIDNEYS 



Continued or heavy use of alcoholics 
is liable to cause fatty degeneration, gran¬ 
ular kidneys or Bright’s disease.' 



HIM THV Kliwry 



* ORANl'LATED KIDNW 
'*UI TO DRINK 


“While alcohol is not the only poison causing Bright's disease, it is a very 
noticeable one, and it is the only one taken into the body that can easily be 

aVOlded."—Bureau of Public Health Education. Dept, of Health. New York City 


1. Sir Victor Horsley : Alcohol and the Human Body, 1920 

2. Dodge and Benedict: Psychological Effects of Alcohol, 1915 


Series E. No. 70 


COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 


THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 


age, the death-rate from cerebral hemorrhage and 
apoplexy, organic diseases of the heart, pneumonia 
and Bright’s Disease was about twice the normal, and 
from cirrohsis of the liver, three times the normal. 

In a study made by the Prudential Life Insur¬ 
ance Company 30 of the mortality in men engaged in 
twenty occupations, seven occupations in which there 
was an excessive death-rate from alcoholism lost pro¬ 
portionately nearly twice as many as the average 
from liver diseases. The saloonkeepers’ rate was 
nearly four times the average, and in other digestive 
diseases the saloonkeepers had the highest rate of the 
twenty occupations. In urinary diseases saloon¬ 
keepers also led with a mortality percentage of 16.1 
as against the average proportion of 12. “The high 
mortality from liver and urinary diseases in saloon¬ 
keepers and bartenders is an indication of the influ¬ 
ence of occupation upon the mortality,” said the offi¬ 
cial report. 

71 . ALCOHOL SIDES WITH GERM ENEMIES 

The blood is known to have certain qualities or 
constituents designed to protect against infection by 
disease germs and against the toxins which they gen¬ 
erate. The presence of alcohol in the blood tends to 
make the drinker more susceptible to germ diseases. 31 

Fillinger found the resistance of the red blood 
cells much reduced after giving champagne to healthy 
human subjects. Weinburg confirmed the results 
showing that 20 per cent of the red cells lose their 
resistance after the administration of 450 c.c. of 
champagne. 

Laitinen infected with typhoid specimens of 
blood furnished by 11 abstainers and 19 drinkers. 
Cultures were made after 1, 2, 6, and 24 hours. Each 

59 


Why America Went Dry 


ALCOHOL 

A 




PNEUMONIA 



Some Germ Enemies 






White Blood Corpuscle Defenders Destroying Germs by Swallowing and Digesting Them 


Certain chemicals develop in the blood, 
which also help destroy the germs and 

their poisons. 

Even Wine and Beer 

Weaken these defenses against disease. 

1. Horsley: “Alcohol and the Human Body" 

Cut of Corpuscles from “Primer of Sanitation/’ World Book Co. 


Series E. No. 71 

COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 


THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 





test showed that more bacteria colonies developed on 
the average in the drinkers, showing lower resistance. 
In another experiment he tested the defensive power 
of the blood in six abstainers and again 63 days later 
after they had taken daily 30-40 c.c. of wine of 10 per 
cent alcoholic strength, 41 and found that in the sec¬ 
ond case the defensive power of the blood was re¬ 
duced 30 per cent. 

Muller, Wirgin, and others have shown that al¬ 
cohol in the blood restricts the formation of “anti¬ 
bodies” in the blood of rabbits. The function of 
these “antibodies” is to resist infection. Rubin 
showed that alcohol injected under the skin made 
rabbits more susceptible to streptococcus (blood 
poison) and to pneumococcus (pneumonia) infection. 
Stewart found that alcohol in small amounts lowered 
resistance to tuberculosis and streptococcus infection. 
Parkinson found that large doses or continuous mod¬ 
erate doses tended to impair the capacity of white 
.blood cells to destroy bacteria. Kern found that in 
guinea pigs inoculated with tuberculosis, the disease 
proved fatal much more quickly with alcoholized ani¬ 
mals than with the “control” non-alcoholized animals. 
When pneumonia occurred among the animals it was 
much more fatal among the alcoholic than in the non¬ 
alcoholic animals. 

“Chronic poisoning (by alcohol), by devitalizing 
the tissues, lowers the defences of the body against 
microbial invasion; consequently specific germs, such 
as those which cause pneumonia and tuberculosis, as 
well as the ordinary microbes of septic inflammation 
and blood-poisoning find a suitable soil. A slight 
general depressing influence—a chill or local injury— 
which would have no harmful effect upon a healthy 
individual, even if micro-organisms were present, be- 
61 


Why America Went Dry 

Alcohol 

Prepares the Bed 
For Tuber culosis 



C It often robs the drinker of proper food, 
shelter and clothing. 

c It intensifies the effects of unhealthful liv¬ 
ing or working conditions. 

C It makes the drinker careless about ex¬ 
posure; lowers his resistance to germs. 

“Intemperance is known to be a very 
important factor in Tuberculosis.” 

— U. S. Government Investigation, 1910-12 in Neio England Cotton Mills. 
1. U. S. Document., 645, 61st Congress, 2nd Session 

Series E. No. 72 


COPYRIGHTED 1 9 20 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 


THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 



cause the vital reaction of the living tissue would pre¬ 
vent a general infection, may be most dangerous to a 
chronic alcoholic.” 38 

72. ALCOHOL PREPARES THE BED FOR 
TUBERCULOSIS 

Tuberculosis is caused, of course, by tubercle 
bacilli. But in order for them to gain a foothold in 
the human organism and to develop they must find 
a favorable physical condition. 

Alcohol may so impair the vital processes of the 
drinker that he becomes susceptible to infection by 
the tubercle bacilli. But the drink habit may also 
lead indirectly to tuberculosis. The money spent for 
liquor often takes from the drinker and his family 
money needed for a healthful home in healthful sur¬ 
roundings, or for abundant, healthful food; and lack¬ 
ing these, the drinker or his wife and children may 
become susceptible to tuberculosis. 

In the United States a remarkable decrease in 
the tuberculosis death-rate occurred within the period 
covered by war restrictions on the liquor Iraflic and 
national prohibition. The Metropolitan Life Insur¬ 
ance Company includes about 15,000,000 industrial 
policyholders—nearly one-seventh of the population 
of the United States and Canada. Its records show 
that the death-rate from all forms of tuberculosis 
dropped between 1913 and 1918 from 206.7 to 189.0, 
or 17.7 per 100,000 insured. Between 1918 and 1924 
it dropped to 104.7 or a decrease in this period of 
diminishing liquor traffic of 84.3 per 100,000 insured. 
Prohibition was not responsible for all the decrease. 
Something must be allowed for the effect of the sys¬ 
tematic campaign for the prevention and care of tu¬ 
berculosis, but Dr. Haven Emerson, formerly Com- 
63 


missioner of Health of the City of New York, has this 
to say of the relation of abolishing the legal liquor 
traffic to improved chance for health as concerns tu¬ 
berculosis : 34 

“Minute analysis of the phenomenal drop in the death-rate from tu¬ 
berculosis in this city and in many other parts of the country during the 
past decade, and in particular during the past two years, has convinced 
me that one of the potent factors in this reduction has been the ability 
of the wage-earner to maintain a reasonable and sufficient standard of 
living, including housing, clothing, food, and opportunity for rest and 
recreation for himself and his family, chiefly because the five or ten per 
cent, of his income which used to be spent regularly for the purchase of 
alcoholic liquors, now is applied to the decencies, comforts and necessi¬ 
ties of life.” 

Since this paragraph was written by Dr. Emer¬ 
son the tuberculosis death-rate has continued to de¬ 
crease phenomenally. 

56 . DRINK BOOSTS DEATH-RATES 

Forty-three of the leading life insurance com¬ 
panies in the United States and Canada supplied rec¬ 
ords on 2,000,000 lives for study by the Actuarial So¬ 
ciety of America, and the Association of Life Insur¬ 
ance Directors. The object was to determine from 
past experience the types of lives among which the 
companies had a higher mortality than the average. 

The insured were grouped into many classes 
among which the chief included (1) those in danger¬ 
ous occupations; (2) those who had a family history 
of tuberculosis; (3) those who had had some personal 
health defect; (4) those whose physical condition 
was not normal as shown by a high pulse, irregular 
pulse, albumin in urine, etc.; (5) those whose habits 
with regard to the use of alcoholic drinks were not 
satisfactory in the past, or who used liquor steadily 
at the time of application for insurance; (6) those 
who were distinctly overweight or underweight. 

In order to determine the relative mortality, a 
64 


standard was prepared representing the average mor¬ 
tality among insured lives, based on the experience of 
the 43 companies among all their insured policy¬ 
holders. When a class is said to have io per cent 
extra mortality, it means that where the experience 
of the companies would have resulted in ioo deaths 
among their insured as a whole, there were no deaths 
in the specified class. 

The investigation covered the period between the 
years 1885 and 1908. In the groups studied as to 
alcoholic habits, all individuals were excluded from 
consideration except those who were in sound aver¬ 
age condition when insured; all other extraneous in¬ 
fluences such as overweight, underweight, impaired 
personal or family health history were excluded. 

The results showed that individuals who, when 
insured, were in the habit of taking daily two glasses 
of beer, or a glass of whisky, or their alcoholic equiva¬ 
lent in some other kind of liquor, had a mortality 18 
per cent in excess of the average. 

Those who had formerly been intemperate but 
who had reformed without treatment before becom¬ 
ing insured had a mortality 132 per cent higher than 
the average. The death rates from suicide, pneu¬ 
monia and Bright’s disease were higher than the 
normal. 

Those who had indulged in occasional immod¬ 
erate drinking within five years prior to application 
for insurance had a mortality 64 per cent higher than 
the average. 

The rate for those who gave a history of occa¬ 
sional immoderate drinking at any time before be¬ 
coming insured was 50 per cent above normal. This 
was equivalent to a reduction in the average length 
of life of these men of over four years. 

65 


DRINK BOOSTS 



Death Rates of Policyholders in 43 American 
and Canadian Life lusurance Companies 


Normal Death Rates 


Drank daily 2 Glasses Beer or 1 Glass 
Whisky prior to application for insurance 

DEATH-RATE 

Formerly Intemperate 
Reformed without treatment 

DEATH-RATE 

Occasional immoderate drinking within 5 
years prior to application for insurance 

DEATH-RATE 

Drank daily 4 to 6 glasses beer or 2 
glasses whisky prior to application for 
insurance DEATH-RATE 

IT IS CERTAINLY PROVED THAT 
TOTAL ABSTAINERS ARE LONGER 
LIVED THAN NON-ABSTAINERS” 

— ARTHURLHUNTER, Actuary, New York Life insurance,Company; Chairman 
Central Bureau Medico-Actuarial Mortality investigation. 

Statistics of 43 American and Canadian Companies Reported by Medico-Actuarial 
- Mortality Committee 1909-1914 

Series E. No. 56 



COPYRIGHTED 1917 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 


THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 








Steady moderate drinkers who before applying 
drank daily more than two glasses of beer or a glass 
of whisky, or the alcoholic equivalent, had a mortal¬ 
ity rate 86 per cent in excess of the average. 

“In my judgment it has been proved beyond 
doubt,” said Mr. Arthur Hunter, Chairman of the 
Committee which made the investigation, “that total 
abstinence from alcohol is of value to humanity; it is 
certain that abstainers live longer than persons who 
use alcoholic drinks.” 15 

73 . A CAT HAS NINE LIVES, YOU HAVE 
ONLY ONE; WHY RISK THAT ONE BY 
DRINKING? 

The comparative death-rate of moderate and 
heavier drinking mentioned here as 18 per cent above 
normal in the first case and 86 per cent above normal 
in the second case were obtained by the study of 
drink habits and accompanying mortality among 
2,000,000 American and Canadian insured persons. 14 
(No. 56.) 

This heavier mortality among drinkers, so far 
as alcohol is responsible for it, is not only due to the 
chemical effect of alcohol on the tissues resulting in 
organic disease. Alcohol impairs the body’s natural 
powers of resistance to infection (No. 71); in some 
degree it leads to a more careless manner of living or 
to other unhygienic habits, especially those resulting 
in venereal infection. Besides, the so-called moder¬ 
ate drinker is always subject to temptation to in¬ 
creased indulgence and thence to immoderate drink¬ 
ing with accompanying physical impairment. 

These mortality figures of insured drinkers, un¬ 
favorable as they are when compared with the aver¬ 
age insured policyholder of these insurance com- 
67 


Why America Went Dry 




r,f- 




m 


m 

wA 



A CAT 

HAS NINE LIVES 
YOU 

HAVE ONLY ONE 


WHY RISK 
THE ONE 
BY DRINKING ? 



The death-rate of men, who, when in¬ 
sured, drank daily two glasses of beer or 
one glass of whisky was 18 per cent 
higher than the average rate. It was 86 
per cent higher among men who drank 

more m ---Statistics from 43 American Life Insurance Companies, 1014. 

Alcohol Paves the Way for Germ 
Organic and Vice Diseases. 

Series E. No. 73 

COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 


THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 










panies, are probably more favorable than if they had 
been compiled from the histories of drinkers in the 
general population. These drinkers had all been ac¬ 
cepted for insurance as in reasonably good health de¬ 
spite their use of alcoholic beverages. “A policy¬ 
holder admitting an indulgence of three glasses of 
beer daily would show a lighter mortality than the 
average man in the population indulging to the same 
degree.” 32 

Dr. Oscar H. Rogers, after examining the expe¬ 
rience of insurance companies in Europe, Australia, 
and North America, with respect to the effect of 
drinking upon mortality, said: 33 

“There appears to be no limit within which alcohol may be entirely 
harmless. It is as if there were a direct relation between the amount of 
alcohol used and the amount of damage done to the body. The evidence 
is strong also that the damage done persists a long time after it has been 
discontinued. Anyone who uses alcohol now or has used it in the past, 
is a less desirable risk, all other things being equal, than a total ab¬ 
stainer, and his undesirability is in proportion to the freedom with which 
he has used the drug.” 

76 . BEER DOUBLED THE CHILD DEATH 
RATE 

The children of whom statistics are given in the 
accompanying illustration were those of a village in 
northern Austria where beer was the chief drink. 
Wine was but little used, and spirits for the most 
part were used only by a few notorious topers. The 
people in this village were living under similar con¬ 
ditions as to food, housing, clothing, were of the same 
race, and were farmers who also worked in mines and 
salt works. Two hundred and thirty families of un¬ 
interrupted strain were investigated, consisting of 675 
men and 635 women with 1,328 children. Twenty- 
two families were childless. 

The families were divided into eight groups: 
(1) Healthy, with no tendency to disease or any es- 

69 


Why America Went Dry 


Beer Doubled 
The Child Death-Rate 

IN THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF LIFE 


All in the same village. Beer practically the only drink used by 
the parents and not always immoderately. 



Children of Sober Parents 

23% DIED 

(18.6% in first year) 



Children of 
Beer Drinkers 

45% DIED 

(36% in first year. > 


Alcohol whether in Beer or in Whisky 
is an Enemy to Child Life. 


120 Sober Families with 650 Children. 

18 Beer-Drinking Families with 125 Children. 

All strictly comparable and free from hereditary disease. 


Adolph Kickh : Alcohol and Child Mortality in Durrenberg, Austria 
Scientific Temperance Journal, Dec. 1914 


Series 

COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 


E. No. 76 

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 








sential germ injury that would have any weight in 
an alcohol investigation; (2) slight hereditary taint 
mostly of tuberculosis without mortality from tuber¬ 
culosis; (3) families in which the father had syphilis; 
(4) families in which the fathers or grandfathers had 
taken part in military campaigns and might have suf¬ 
fered impairment by hardship; insufficient diet, or 
syphilis; (5) families in which one-third at least of 
the known causes of death was cancer, with no other 
organic disease present; (6) families in which mor¬ 
tality from tuberculosis was pronounced; (7) families 
of drinkers who did not have tendencies to cancer, tu¬ 
berculosis, or syphilis; the extent of drinking varied; 
(8) miscellaneous families, those who did not belong 
to any of the groups; these eleven families contained 
one syphilitic who was also alcoholic; the remainder 
were drinkers and tuberculous. 

The investigation showed that the drinkers’ fam¬ 
ilies (group 7) lost 36 per cent of their children under 
one year of age; the healthy families (group 1) lost 
but 18.6 per cent. Under five years of age, drinkers’ 
families lost 44.8 per cent of their children; healthy 
families, 23.5 per cent. In each case the child mor¬ 
tality in these drinkers’ families in a beer drinking 
community was two to one as compared with the 
healthy families. The mortality in the drinkers’ 
group was the same as in the syphilitic group for 
children under one year of age; it was 10 per cent 
higher than in the syphilitic groups for children less 
than five years old, and at both age periods was 
higher than in any other group. With the exception 
of the syphilitic group, which was small, the drink¬ 
ers’ group showed the highest rate of childlessness. 


71 


Why America Went Dry 


I 


ALCOHOL tie HEREDITY 

Comparison of Children of One Mother by an 
Alcoholic Father and by Two Sober Fathers 



Normal Healthy 
Woman 



Si* Generations 

Healthy Stock Second Husband' 

Alcoholic 
No Taint in Family 



Third Husband 
Normal, Healthy 
Good Stock 


First Marriage—Normal Husband 



Three Normal, Healthy Children 


Second Marriage—Alcoholic Husband 

Three Defective and Sickly Children 



Alcoholic Alcoholic Dwarfed 

Tuberculous Degenerate Tuberculous 

Died Early Social Pervert. Died Early Nervous 


Third Marriage—Normal Husband 


Two Norms!. Healthy Children 




This study is only one of several authentic cases. Animal 
experiments have shown similar results. 


Series E. No. 77 

COPYRIGHTED 1920 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 


THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 















77- ALCOHOL AND HEREDITY 

The effect of alcohol upon the children of the 
drinker is subject to many conditions. Experiments 
with animals indicate quite clearly that an alcoholized 
animal parent is more liable to have defective off¬ 
spring or a higher mortality in the young. This 
extra mortality may be pre-natal or post-natal or 
both. In human families conditions are not subject 
to control by which experimental evidence can be 
obtained. Not all drinkers are equally susceptible to 
alcohol ; in many cases, their children are born before 
the drink habit has become fixed or heavy. Conse¬ 
quently no hard and fast statements can be made con¬ 
cerning the effect of alcohol on human offspring, be¬ 
yond the fact that in many cases there appears to be 
reduced viability and vigor. Some illustrations of 
possible effects of drinking habits of parents upon 
the physical or mental condition of their children are 
given in the following cases. 

Dr. Josef Schweighofer, for a long time head of 
a hospital for the insane in Salzburg, set himself the 
task of investigating the causes of mental disease 
from the records at his disposal. 

In studying the various influences capable of 
affecting the offspring, Dr. Schweighofer found what 
seemed to him indications in some cases of an in¬ 
jurious influence resulting from the use of alcohol by 
a parent. 

He described three types of families. 

In families of the first type one or both parents 
became more alcoholic as years went on. An ex¬ 
ample given was a drinking inn-keeper whose first 
child was very nervous; the second, epileptic; the 
third, never healthy, died at 36 years of age. The 
73 


fourth, fifth and sixth all died soon after birth, and 
the seventh was still-born. 

In the second type of families there had been 
hard drinking before marriage, but afterwards refor¬ 
mation or improvement with corresponding improve¬ 
ment in the condition of the children. An example 
given was that of a commercial traveler who after 
his marriage to a healthy woman stopped drinking. 
The first child was mentally unbalanced; the second 
had some mental disorder but was cured; the third 
was normal. 

In the third type there were changes in drink: 
relations midway of the reproductive period with 
changes at the same time in the health of the children. 
An example of this type of family is given in the il¬ 
lustration. It represents the children of a strong and 
healthy mother known to have been of healthy an¬ 
cestry for six generations. Her first husband was 
sober, and her three children by this husband were 
all normal, strong and healthy. Her second hus¬ 
band was an alcoholic. Their three children were all 
abnormal ; two were alcoholic and died in early life; 
the third was a nervous dwarf. 

By the third husband, a sober man, she had again 
strong, healthy children. 

In summing up his history of individual families 
of which the foregoing are but a few, Dr. Schweig- 
hofer said: 

“The study shows that the children of drinkers 
develop mental disease much oftener than the chil¬ 
dren of parents who are themselves mentally dis¬ 
eased but not alcoholic. That is, an existing ten¬ 
dency to mental weakness becomes fixed under the 
effects of alcohol; while without it there may be re¬ 
covery.” 


74 


74- PROHIBITION BROUGHT PROSPERITY 

The use of alcoholic beverages in very many cases 
not only takes from the family the money spent for 
the drink, but eventually it further reduces the fam¬ 
ily's needed income because the father's earning abil¬ 
ity is impaired. The drinker who is irregular at his 
work because of his drink habit or who becomes less 
skillful so that he earns lower wages, or who loses 
unnecessary time through sickness or accident due to 
alcohol, in these ways may reduce the family income. 
This often results in compelling the wife to become 
a wage earner to eke out the husband's inadequate 
support; the children may have to leave school and go 
to work too early, perhaps as unskilled workers, so 
that as adults they, in turn, have to try to bring up 
a family on a lower scale of living than would have 
been necessary had they received more education. 
Back of all these economic conditions lies the physi¬ 
cal effect of alcohol in impairing physical or mental 
health or working ability. Partly responsible, too, is 
the drug effect of alcohol which in many drinkers re¬ 
quires more and more alcohol for its satisfaction, with 
the result that the drinker spends more and more 
money to buy his liquor. The following statements 34 
of the gains in family prosperity resulting from pro¬ 
hibiting liquors are typical of many: 

Samuel R. Van Sant, Banker, Minneapolis, Min¬ 
nesota: “Savings bank deposits show that the peo¬ 
ple are now saving their money; their children are 
better fed and clothed and being better educated." 

Charles J. Hauck, The Selby Shoe Company, 
Portsmouth, Ohio: “Those who formerly patronized 
the saloon are providing for their families not only 
in the necessities but in the way of pleasure. There 
are more who are buying their own homes, have sav- 
75 


Why America Went Dry 


Prohibition 

Brought Prosperity 



Banks Instead of Saloons are Crowded Saturday Nights. 


Prohibition brought More and Larger 
Bank Accounts; More Sales of Lux¬ 
uries and Necessities, More Home 
Building. 


Alchol, Even in Wine and Beer, Cuts Down 
Health and Ambition, Earnings and Savings 


Denver Labor Bulletin, etc. 

W. J. Johnson : The Question answered, 1917 

Series E. No. 74 

COPYRIGHTED IQ20 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 
WESTERVILLE, OHIO 









ings accounts, and own automobiles than there were 
when the saloon was open.” 

William J. Faux, President of Logan Coal Com¬ 
pany, Pittsburgh, Pa.: “The families of the working 
class are better fed and clothed. Children who for¬ 
merly were barefooted wear shoes and stockings. 
Where formerly stood two saloons now stand two 
National Banks with deposits of about $2,000,000.” 

75 . LESS DRINK, MORE HOMES 

“After state prohibition came into effect the sav¬ 
ings banks began to find an increase in their deposits; 
people began buying their own homes and merchants 
to buy their business establishments; jails were being 
emptied; a general air of prosperity became increas¬ 
ingly apparent, and what was more important, com¬ 
fort and good will began to be plainly apparent. Then 
prices of real estate began to advance/’ . . . 

“Many elements enter into the present ever-in¬ 
creasing demand for more and better houses. Let 
no one say that it is absurd that prohibition had a 
dominant part. John Workingman has more money 
today than he ever had in the history of the country, 
and probably in the history of the world. My opinion 
is that prohibition has created, through its success in 
saving money, a tremendous impetus in the mind of 
the possible home-seeker as to the desirability of in¬ 
vesting his savings in a place where he knows he will 
be sheltered without the drag of the payment of rent. 
He wants, too, more room. He has the money to pay 
for it, and he is getting it. The tremendous demand 
for houses is universally known. There were never 
so many seeking for homes as now, never so many 
purchasers.” (Felix Isman in The Saturday Evening 
Post, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 1, 1924.) 

77 


Why America Went Dry 

LESS DRINK 
MOREHOMES 



Henry living in a wet 
State, found it easy to 
spend a dollar a week for 
beer. After 25 years all 
there was to show for his 
money was a pile of empty 
beer kegs—and he did not 
own those. 


John, living in a dry 
State, found it easy 
to put a dollar a week 
into the Building Loan 
Association. After 
25 years he owned a 
good home . 

Sobriety Fosters tne Clear Brain, 
the Steady Hand, the Thrift Habit 

Series E. No. 75 

COPYRIGHTED 19 20 

BY SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE FEDERATION 
BOSTON, MASS. 

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO. 

WESTERVILLE, OHIO 












REFERENCES. 

1 Schulz, Hugo: Pflugers Archiv. f. die ges. Physiologie, Vols. 164, 

166, 168. 

2 Stone, Warren S.: The Locomotive Brotherhood Rules. Scientific 

Temperance Journal, XX. 5. January, 19TI. 

3 Idem: Address before National Law Enforcement Committee, Hotel 

Waldorf-Astoria, New York City, Feb. 1, 1924. 

4 British Board of Education: The Hygiene of Food and Drink. 1920. 

5 Twelfth Annual Report of the United States Commissioner of Labor. 

1897-1898, p. 71. 

6 Dr. G. von Bunge: Die Alkoholfrage. 1886. 

7 Charles Reitell: Mem. Machinery, and Alcoholic Drinks. The Annals 

of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Sept., 
1922. 

8 Dr. Nelson M. Black: The Eye in Industrial Accidents. Bulletin of 

the University of Wisconsin, 1916. 

9 H. M. Vernon, M. D.: The Influence of Alcohol on Manual Work 

and Neuro-Muscular Coordination, 1919. 

10 Thomas K. Marshall: The First Six Months of* Prohibition in Ari¬ 

zona, 1915. 

11 E. H. Cherrington, LL.D.: America and the World Liquor Problem, 

1922. 

12 Reports of Leipsic Sick Benefit Clubs, Bd. I, 1910, quoted in Handbook 

on Alcoholism of Dresden International Hygenic Exposition, 1912. 

13 William J. Brickley, M. D.: Boston Med. and Surgical Journal , May 

20, 1915. 

14 Medico-Actuarial Mortality Investigation, Vol. IV, page 11, et scq. 

15 Arthur Hunter, Actuary, New York Life Insurance Company in an ad¬ 

dress at the VIII Annual Meeting of the Association of Life In¬ 
surance Presidents, Dec. io, 1914. 

16 E. Kraepelin: Intern. Monats. z. Erforschung d. Alkoholismus, etc. 

XXVI. Heft, io-it. 

17 Diirig: Pflugers Archiv., fiir die ges. Physiologie, Vol. 113, p. 314, 

1906. 

18 H. W. Hollingworth : Thearapeutic Gazette, Feb., 1921 . Jour. Abnor¬ 

mal Psychology and Social Psychology. Nos. 3 and 4., 1923-24* 

19 Walter R. Miles: Alcohol and Human Efficiency. Carnegie Institu¬ 

tion, Washington, 1924. 

20 Aschaffenburg. Psychologische arbeiten. I. 4., 1896. 

21 R. Vogt: Norsk. Mag. f. Laeger, No. 6, 1910. 

23 Journal American Medical Association, Sec. 24, 1921, Jan. 7, 14, 21, 1922. 

24 M. M. Allen: Hospitals Using Very Little Alcoholic Liquor. 1922. 

25 Flade: Wider den Trunk, cited by Hoppe in Die Tatsachen iiber den 

Aikohol, p. 202, 1912. 

26 Intern. Monats. z. Erforschung des Alkoholismus, 1898, p. 144* 

27 Carnegie Nutrition Laboratory. Dr. Raymond Dodge and Dr. Francis 

Benedict: Neur®-muscular Effects of Moderate Doses of Alcohol. 

28 Uno^otterman: Finska Lcikaresdllskapets Handlinger, October. 1916. 

29 Walter Frankfurther: Kraepelin’s Psychologische Arbeiten, Vol. VI„ 

1914. 


79 


30 Prudential Life Insurance Company: Occupation Mortality. Exhibit 

at International Congress on Hygiene and Demography, 1912. 

31 Fillinger, F. V.: Deutsch Med. Wochschr, 1912, XXXVIII, p. 999. 
Weinburg, W. W.: Russky Vratch, 1912, II, p. 1324. 

Laitinen, T.: Norman Kerr Lecture, XII, International Congress 
Against Alcoholism, London, 1909; Ztschr. f. Hyg. u. Infektions- 
krankheiten, LVIII, 1909-8, p. 139. 

Muller, Wirgin, et al. Quoted by Bastedo in Materia Medica, Phar¬ 
macology and Therapeutics, 1918, 2nd edition. 

Rubin, George: Journal of Infectious Diseases, 1904, I, pp. 425-444. 
Stewart, C. E.: Modern Medicine, 1907, XVI, pp. 241-246. 

Parkinson, P. R.: The London Lancet, 1909, VII, pp. 1580-82. 

Kern, Walter: Zeitschrift f. Hyg. u. Infektions-krankheiten, 1910. 

32 Eugene L. Fisk, M. D.: Alcohol, Its Relation to Human Efficiency and 

Longevity, 1917. 

33 Oscar H. Rogers, M. D., Chief Medical Director of New York Life 

Ins. Co.: The Effect of Alcohol upon Longevity, 1922. 

34 The Manufacturers’ Record, 1922: The Prohibition Question. 

35 Adolf Kickh, Biologischer und Gesellschaft-hygienischer von Diirrn- 

berg-Salzburg mit Anhang uber die Wirkungen des Krieges auf 
diesen Bezirk, 1917. 

36 Josef Schweighofer: Alkohol u. Nachkommenschaft in Oesterr. San.- 

Wes., 1912.^ xxiv, 517; 543; 567. 

37 U. S. Statistical Abstract, 1922. 

38 Alcohol Investigation Committee of Medical Research Council: Alco¬ 

hol: Its Action on the Human Organism. Second Edition, 1924, 
pp. 40, 41, 54, no. British. 

39 Proceedings of Third Annual Congress of the National Safety Council, 

1914. p. 221. 

40 Jour. Amer. Med. Assn., June 9, 1917. 

41 For exactness in reporting experiments the amounts of alcohol used in 

experiments are for the most part given in the text in cubic centi¬ 
meters as employed by experimenters. The following table indi¬ 
cates approximately the amounts of beer or wine containing the 
doses of alcohol measured by volume. 


Alcohol used 

Beer Containing 

Wine Containing 

equivalent to 

354 % alcohol 

10 per cent, alcohol 

10 c. c. 

3/5 Pt. 

1/5 pt. 

25 c. c. 

1 1/2 pts. 

1/2 pt. 

30 c. c. 

14/5 pts. 

3/5 Pt. 

40 c. c. 

22/5 pts. 

4/5 Pt. 

50 c. c. 

3 pts. 

1 pint 

60 c. c. 

3 3/5 pts. 

1 1/5 pints 

80 c. c. 

4 4/5 pts. 

1 3/5 pts. 


Many wines are stronger in alcohol than the 10 per cent of table above 
which represents about the strength of champagne, claret and the 
Rhine red and white wines. Analyses made by the British Gov¬ 
ernment Chemist gives the strength of port wine at 20 per cent., 
sherry at 18.9 per cent., Madeira at 19.5 per cent., Italian red wine 
at 11.8 per cent, French Burgundy (white) at 14.3 per cent., Bor¬ 
deaux red, and white at 11.5. Malt liquors ranged from 3.2 per 
cent, to 6 per cent, by volume. 38 

The stronger the alcoholic content of the beverage the smaller the 
quantity which would have to be consumed to consume the number 
of centimeters of alcohol used in the experiments. Beer containing 
3/4 per cent, alcohol by volume is practically the same as “2.75 per 
cent.” by weight. 


80 








/ 







• . 


4 r 


nun lllllll IIIIIIIIIM 

040 055 010 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 







\ 


















r .- ; , 0 

. '■%'. i. .*:■" 
















I 
























